The Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2017, which has provision for sentencing a person for life term if found guilty of cow slaughter or having direct involvement with the cow slaughter, passed in the recently concluded budget session of Gujarat Assembly got Governor’s nod on Thursday.
The amendment to this effect was brought in by Gujarat Government on the last day of budget session that ended on March 31.
With the Governor OP Kohli’s nod, Gujarat becomes the first State in the country to have a strict law against cow slaughter.
The new law has provisions for financial penalty ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for such a crime. Anyone found illegally keeping or transporting a cow too can be imprisoned up to 10 years in jail and a fine of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh can be imposed. The offence is also non-bailable now.
The new Act includes seizure of the vehicles used for transportation of animals for slaughter.
The State Government
has also put curbs on transportation of cows in the State. Even the legal and licensed movement of the cattle
would not be allowed between 7.00 pm to 5.00 am in the morning.