E-Paper
Cops catch up with ‘goats only’ thieves
Kanpur: Goat theft was never a crime that gave the men in khaki sleepless nights. However, the sheer number of the cases of crime and the frequency in central Uttar
Kanpur: Goat theft was never a crime that gave the men in khaki sleepless nights. However, the sheer number of the cases of crime and the frequency in central Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand was what made the police sit up and take note.
The Kanpur Dehat police had been on the trail of the thieves for about a month but could only catch up with them on Wednesday night. A high-end SUV was intercepted in Amrahat and four goats were recovered. Rafiq Munna, Dev Narayan Tinku, Gauri Shankar Kariya, Salman Chachu, Rustam Qureshi and Naushad were arrested. They had allegedly stolen and sold thousands of goats in different states using high-end vehicles.
The six men arrested in Kanpur Dehat are part of an organised group that specialised in goat-only theft and followed a low-risk, high-return model. Each day, they were stealing three-four goats on an average, which were quickly rounded up in their SUVs and sold to clients. Their electronic footprint shows that they went all the way to Bengaluru to sell the goats. They told the police that theft and a quick sell-off was the key.
They did this throughout the year and earned Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per goat. The prices nearly doubled during Eid-ul-Zuha, which they dubbed as their season.
“The number of complaints was hard to ignore; we decided to get cracking on the case and found a pattern that we followed to get to this group,” said Kanpur Dehat superintendent of police Anurag Vats.
“Scrutiny of records for leads about people involved in such thefts was painstaking but it indeed threw up a lead. It was followed,” he said.
It emerged that a few years ago, Rafiq Munna of Gajner, was jailed for stealing livestock in the district. He was the only one to have gone to jail on these charges. Investigations revealed that Rafiq was using his relatives and friends to continue with the goat theft to keep the police at bay.
His gang in Unnao, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Mahoba would move in rented Toyota Fortuners and Scorpios. “They generally used the cover of darkness to pull off the thefts but sometimes, they would audaciously strike during the day picking up the goats from a herd as the shepherd rested. They would load them in their vehicles and go without being seen,” said the police.
Police have now widened the investigation to look for other groups. Vats said he has asked his colleagues to ensure such cases are registered and not taken lightly. During this investigation, his team did not find a single case of goat theft registered. “It is important to register cases to ensure that we have a proper case against them in court,” he said.
