‘Pinku and Bablu’: Why Rajasthan cops set up SIT to track down 70 stolen donkeys

Local police officers in Rajasthan initially claimed to have found 15 of the 70 stolen donkeys but the ones they sought to return to the villagers did not respond to any of their names. The villagers refused to accept them

JAIPUR: A special investigation team has been set up by the police in a Rajasthan village 300km from state capital Jaipur to trace 70 donkeys stolen from cattle rearers over the past week or so, police said on Wednesday.

The villagers, who protested outside Khuiyan police station in Rajasthan, said the 70 donkeys were worth ₹14 lakh and the theft will impact their livelihood.

The team, led by an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) in Hanumangarh district’s Khuiyan police station, was formed after the police, which was facing pressure from residents of Devasar village, initially claimed to have ‘recovered’ 15 donkeys.

But the bunch of protesting complainants - they camped outside the police station on Tuesday evening to prod the police to act - declined to accept these donkeys, said Khuiyan station house officer Vijendra Sharma.

It turned out that the cattle rearers had a name for each of them. Names such as Pinku, Mohar and Bablu, said Sharma. And the 15-17 donkeys recovered by the police didn’t respond to any of them.

Sharma said they bluntly refused to accept them. And he had to set up the special team.

“A police team led by ASI and five constables are searching the missing donkeys,” the police officer said.

Hanumangarh district police officers promised villagers protesting outside Khuiyan police station that the stolen donkeys will be found within 15 days.

According to reports from Hanumangarh, the villagers told the police that each donkey was worth about ₹20,000, and the 70 donkeys, worth a princely sum of ₹14 lakh.

Rajasthan, which has a 500-year-old tradition of hosting a mega donkey fair in Jaipur district, has 23,000 donkeys that are mostly used by nomadic pastoralists in brick kilns for carrying bricks and pulling wheel carts.

The population of the beasts of burden in the country and Rajasthan has, however, declined steeply. Between 2012 and 2019, their population in the country fell by 61%, according to the Centre’s livestock census. In Rajasthan, the decline has been sharper; 70%.

Sharma said officers from his police station have sounded out people in the nearby villages to be careful about their livestock, especially donkeys, in view of the serial thefts.