Hundreds of Bajrang Dal activists here on Sunday rescued at least 23 hybrid bullocks which were being transported dangerously in an Express train. The railway police registered a case in this connection and detained three UP-based persons, who were transporting the cattle illegally in the fast train.
Sources said the cattles were transported from Hyderabad to Howrah in a closed container bogey attached to the Hyderabad-Howrah Hatia Express. Getting a tipoff from some sources, the Bajrang Dal activists led by their local coordinator Sangram Swain stopped the train at the Cuttack station, demanded to delink the bogey from the Express train and rescued the cattle.
Swain said the heavily-built bullocks were put into a small dinghy-like bogey without proper ventilation. “Even the floor of the bogey was so slippery that some animals had fallen down travelling in the Express train that rapidly picks up the speed and stops suddenly,” the Bajrang Dal leader said.
The police identified the owner of the consignment to be one Nawab Mohammed, also of Uttar Pradesh. The bogey was detached and the train was allowed to move ahead after more than three hours of detention at the station, causing inconvenience to the passengers.
Till this report was filed, the Bajrang Dal activists were camping at the station throughout the day and providing fodder and drinking water to the cattle. They were insisting to take the cattle to a nearby Goshala, police said.