Cattle carcasses spark communal tension

Cattle carcasses spark communal tension
Kapil Dixit, TNN 3 July 2009

ALLAHABAD: Recovery of 65 carcasses of cows, oxen and calves sparked communal tension on the border of Kaushambi and Allahabad districts under 
 
Puramufti and Dhoomanganj police circles on Friday. Hindu frontal organisations have served a 24-hour ultimatum to the district administration demanding arrest of culprits.

Raids by three police teams in Allahabad, Kaushambi and Unnao districts to nab eight identified butchers failed to diffuse the tension.

Trouble started when locals found cattle carcasses in a field in Bamrauli-Uparha village. Even before the police could reach the spot, villagers and volunteers of Hindu frontal organisations appeared on the scene, protesting the incident.

Senior district officials, including IG (Allahabad range) SK Shukla, DIG\SSP (Allahabad) Chandra Prakash and Circle Oficer (Chail) Deep Kumar too rushed to the site to take stock of the situation.

Shukla ordered joint police teams to nab the persons involved in the crime at the earliest. DIG\SSP, (Allahabad) Chandra Prakash said, “We have dispatched teams to arrest the persons involved in the crime.”

Adding that role of a few villagers too was under scanner, he announced that NSA would be invoked against the culprits.

However, people residing in houses located near the site have remained tight-lipped over the incident. A villager told TOI that an employee of a nearby dhaba had gone to answer nature’s call in a nearby field. His presence alarmed the miscreants, who dumped the carcasses and escaped, he claimed. The villager claimed that the cattle were slaughtered in an organised manner on Thursday night.

Station officer, Puramufti police station (Kaushambi), Radha Raman Singh said, “Miscreants involved in the incident have been identified. They belong to Bamrauli and Atrauli villages.”

District magistrate, Kaushambi, Lokesh M said that Allahabad police were investigating the case as the area fell under their jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, chief of Guraksha Kashi Prant Lalmani Tewari told TOI that the authorities have 24-hour to solve the case otherwise Hindu frontal organisations launch a series of protest and demonstrations. He, however, alleged that the Allahabad and Kaushambi police had dumped 150 carcasses of cows in the Ganga to diffuse tension. “The police became active only after I phoned DGP and principal secretary (home) and informed them about the incident,” he said.

Jail sentence for Muslim for killing pregnant cow in Delhi

Man gets jail for killing pregnant cow in Delhi
Press Trust of India
Sunday, November 09, 2008, (New Delhi)Stabbing a neighbour’s pregnant cow to death has proved costly for a bakery owner as a Delhi court has sentenced him to one year prison term for the offence.

Naseem Khan, 25, who used to run a bakery in south Delhi, took out a knife and inflicted three stab wounds to the bovine after she devoured some materials from his shop. The cow died on the spot.

The court held Khan guilty under Section 429 (mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering useless any elephant, camel or horse) of the IPC.

“It is held that the prosecution has succeeded to prove its case against the accused beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt and that he gave blows to the cow, which caused her death,” a Metropolitan Magistrate said.

The court rejected his plea for leniency on the grounds that he has old parents and a child to look after. He also sought leniency on the ground that he had no past criminal records.

It also relied upon the statement of Vir Singh, the complainant, alleging that the accused had stabbed his pregnant cow on May 20, 2001 as she entered Khan’s bakery at Sangam Vihar in New Delhi.

Khan was duly identified by the complainant during the trial as the accused, the court noted, adding that he was also not cross-examined by the defence.

“It is a settled law if the witness is not cross-examined on any point, his testimony is deemed to be accepted by the accused,” the court said.

Khan’s plea for implication in the case was also dismissed by the court, saying that there was no record of any enmity between the complainant and the accused.

The cow’s injuries were also corroborated by the doctor who conducted the autopsy, prompting the court to award a prison term of one year to Khan.