A police Constable was suspended and four villagers were arrested on Monday on the charge of stealing cattle in the Begunia area in Khordha district recently.
According to reports, locals had intercepted a truck transporting 50 heads of cattle illegally at Adivasi Sahi near Kadaba village on April 14. On being informed by villagers, Khordha SDPO Sushil Mishra, Begunia PS IIC and Bolgarh and Begunia Tehsildar rushed to the spot. However, they could not make any arrangement soon to keep the pet animals in custody in view of the ongoing Covid lockdown. As a result, the cattle moved away.
Meanwhile Begunia Talasahi Youth Club president Sukant Parida rescued eight numbers of cattle and kept them in his custody.
On April 17, Constable Sushant Sahoo along with five cattle mafia reportedly went to Parida and took three of the cattle saying him that the IIC had given an order in that regard. Later, the IIC sent the rest five cows to the Sijua Goshala through Animal Welfare member Santosh Dash. Later it was found that only three heads of cattle were handed over to the Goshala and the rest two were missing. When complaints were made in this regard, Dash brought two aged cows and handed over them to the Goshala.
On Friday night, a team of police came to Talasahi and arrested Bhaskar Jena, Gopinath Jena, Malay Ranjan Patnaik and Pratap Jena of the charge of stealing cattle. They were forwarded to court on Sunday.
SDPO Sushil Mishra said the concerned Constable has been suspended and arrested.
Talasahi villagers, cow protection activists and intellectuals have demanded that the mafia who had accompanied Constable to bring cattle from Sukant on April 17 and the Animal Welfare member should be brought into the purview of investigation so that all information regarding the missing cattle would come out.