Palamu police have upped its drive against smuggling of the bovine animals.
In the last 72 hours there has been a big haul of 192 bovine animals here with the latest 149 buffaloes under the Nawa Bazar police station limits.
Five containers have so far been seized, 4 under the Nawa Bazar police station and 1 in sadar police station limits.
The number of arrests so far is 11. Six arrests by the Nawa Bazar police and 5 by the sadar police.
In the rescue of the 149 buffaloes, seizure of 4 containers and arrests of 6 the role of the SDPO Bishrampur Rakesh Singh, ASP, is a lesson to be learnt by the young police officers, said sources.
This IPS officer Rakesh Singh knew there would be containers where stuffed bovine animals like sand bags. Among the 4 containers seized, 1 had Nagaland registration for the container while 3 of the Jharkhand police officer Chintu Kumar.
Nagaland registration vehicle is involved in bovine animal smuggling in Jharkhand! The connection is very long.
Further among the 6 arrested, two are from Muradabad in UP. One from Bihar. The remaining are from Gumla and Chatra. Surprisingly none from Palamu.
Again all the 6 arrested are Muslims well below 35 years of age. All the 6 are drivers / apprentices.
Sources said it points towards a well knit network of smuggling with Nagaland vehicle registration to men of Muradabad and a couple of districts of Jharkhand and one district of Bihar.
Officer in charge of the Nawa Bazar police station Chintu Kumar said, "These buffaloes were being shipped from Lohardaga. It's really a matter of inquiry as to how so many buffaloes are of Lohardaga."
There is a logic behind Chintu Kumar's reference to the buffaloes. Lohardaga is a tribal dominated district and adivasis are not known to be any rearer of the buffaloes. Then Yadavs parted with their buffaloes? 70 are she buffaloes which is a source of daily income.
These buffaloes were to be off loaded at Baroon in Bihar. The 6 arrested drivers / apprentices could tell this much to the police. They had not much idea what or where after Baroon in Bihar.
There is a worrisome moment. Drivers of the containers smuggling bovine animals treat cops on the street /NH out to halt them as their enemies and there is no surety they will repent anymore to crush the cops in order to escape.
It's the cops to save themselves otherwise drivers of the controversy have hardly any respect for their lives.
In both the cases of the sadar police and Nawa Bazar police, cases under sections of putting cops on duty at peril of lives have been registered under BNS.
