In a shocking incident, no less than 18 cows were allegedly murdered by more than 15 miscreants near Bilaspur village under Nihal Singh Wala sub-division on the wee hours of Tuesday.
A few hours after the incident, the police have arrested eight suspected people in the matter, including four butchers and four suppliers in a 10-hour-long operation,.
Moga Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gurpreet Singh Toor said that the police have also recovered various types of sharp-edged weapons which were used to kill cows.
During the investigation, the culprits revealed that they were running illegal business for selling cow meat and other parts of the cows in the different states of the country, said the SSP. “The police has also rescued 39 cows from Tharaj village under Baghapurana sub-division,” he said.
The police has registered a case against 16 people, including five unidentified persons, under Section 4 of the Punjab Prohibition of the Cow Slaughter Act, Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Nihal Singh Wala police station.
The arrested have been identified as Juber Dausre, Salim Khan, Mohammad Usman of Qutub Sher, Abdulah of Gango, Paramjit Singh of Thraj village, lakhvir Singh of Kalyan Sukha village, Banta of Donk village and Mangal Singh of Kotla Mehar Singh Wala village. The three absconders are Nayam, Nawab and Mohison.
“We are investigating the entire matter and I hope the police will find more clue of this inter-state gang. A special investigation team (SIT) raided at various places across the state and we have barricaded all entry points as well as we have also informed to all districts of the state regarding the fled miscreants,” said the SSP.
ludhiana’s Gau Rakheya Dal (RYD) district president Darshan Rana complained to the local police that his Dal had received a tip-off that some miscreants were busy to kill cows in Moga district for their illegal business. “As soon as, we received this information, we formed a special team of our volunteers for nabbing the culprits. We trapped them near Bilaspur on Tuesday at wee hours and nabbed eight people red-handed with the help of some local residents as well as police,” he said.
Punjab Gaushala Board chairman Kimti Bhagat also visited Moga, on Tuesday evening, and held a meeting with senior police officials as well as heads of the various social, religious and political organizations. “I assured that the government will not allowed to brake peace of the state and nobody will be spared who is responsible for killing our holy cows,” he said.
Following the incident, the entire Nihal Singh Wala town, including shops and other establishments, were shut down in sorrow and a heavy police force was deployed. However, the situation remained peaceful.
The carcasses of cows were buried with the help of villagers at the ‘hadda rodi’ ground in the morning after post-mortem.