Shamli: 2 held for ferrying cows, vigilante held for assaulting them

The police said the duo claimed that they had bought the cow to keep them at home but failed to produce any document of purchase and transportation.

The case against the vigilantes was lodged in the evening, after a video was circulated widely on social media, showing them beating up the duo with belts and sticks.

The key accused leading the group of vigilantes, Anuj Bansal, was arrested late evening. The incident took place in an area under Adarsh Mandi police station area of Shamli on Monday morning.

Asked about the delay in lodging the case against the cow vigilantes for the assault, Shamli Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar P said the police were informed about two people caught carrying cows, and learnt about the assault only through the video.

Dharmendra Pawar, SHO of Adarsh Mandi police station, told The Indian Express that a home guard informed them around 7.30 am that a group of people had stopped a three-wheeler, carrying two cows, near Dheemanpur railway crossing and were beating them. A police team reached there and found the group assaulting the duo and trying to drag them in order to parade them in market, he added.

The home guard told the police that when he tried to intervene, the vigilantes manhandled him, Pawar said, explaining inclusion of IPC Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty) against Bansal and his 10 unidentified associates. The charges also include voluntarily causing hurt.

He said Dilshad and the minor have been booked under Cow Slaughtering Act and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act on a complaint filed by Bansal. They will be produced before a local court on Tuesday, he added. Both the SHO and the SP also said that the cows recovered are not milking animals.

The police rescued the duo and sent them to hospital for treatment, and seized the vehicle and cows, Pawar said. “The two claimed they had bought the cows from Saita village and were carrying them to their home in Kudana village, which is around 10 km from the spot where they were stopped (by the vigilantes). Both claimed that the animals were bought to be kept as pets at home,” he said.

Bansal had earlier been arrested in 2015 for allegedly beating a Muslim man after he and other Bajrang Dal activists had caught the man carrying a calf, allegedly stolen from a cowshed in Adarsh Mandi area. Bansal and his associates had subsequently paraded the man through a market after painting his face black.