Mini-truck with dead cattle found in Ghaziabad, residents clash with cops

GHAZIABAD: Tension prevailed in Indirapuram on Saturday morning after residents found a truck with seven dead cattle and a calf that was alive.

GHAZIABAD: Tension prevailed in Indirapuram on Saturday morning after residents found a truck with seven dead cattle and a calf that was alive.

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When police took the carcasses for postmortem, 250 residents allegedly pelted stones at them. A sub-inspector was severely injured in the attack, said cops. Locals claimed they were cows.

The mini-truck crossing Nyay Khand-1 met with an accident at 3 am on Saturday, police said. The driver, unable to start the damaged the truck, abandoned it in front of Indirapuram Public School and fled.

“At about 7 am, the security guard of Indirapuram public school saw the truck and asked people around about it. He heard the sound of an animal breathing rapidly,” said Ghaziabad superintendent of police (city) Salman Taj.

An hour later, residents broke open the truck’s back door, he said. “The locals found seven dead cattle and one living calf inside it after which they informed the police,” Taj said.

“I informed the police at about 7.45 am...The PCR van reached the spot within 10 minutes. By then the locals had already broken open the back door of the mini- truck..,” said Indirapuram Public School security guard Ram Naresh Yadav.

Residents said word spread like wildfire. “There was commotion when the police started taking the carcasses for postmortem. People were raising anti-government slogans and trying to vandalise the truck,” said Abhinav Tyagi, a resident of Makanpur village in Indirapuram.

Following the alleged attack, cops from Sahibabad, Link Road and Khoda police stations were called in. Sub-inspector Netrapal Dikshit was allegedly injured while cops tried to reason with the mob.

“After nearly two hours, the locals were pacified and asked to go back home,” said Indirapuram circle officer Atul Kumar Yadav.

An FIR was registered against the unidentified truck driver.

“CCTV footage of the Indirapuram Public school has been acquired,” said Taj.

The carcasses were buried at the Nandigram cow shed near river Hindon. The calf was kept under police care. An FIR was registered for rioting and violence against 250 unidentified men who allegedly attacked the police.

“Video of the mob pelting stones at the police has been obtained and the miscreants will be identified,” added Taj.