In a major chase on the National Highway (NH) 75 and 98, a team led by assistant superintendent of police Palamau, K Vijay Shankar rescued 350 cattle and seized 16 trucks by which the cattle were being smuggled to West Bengal, said sources.
Shankar said, “One truck driver in which there were cattle and which our cops wanted to halt tried to crush our one cop whom we could save.”
Truck driver and the cattle were contained and controlled.
Sources said this is the biggest ever haul of the trucks and cattle in Daltonganj.
Shankar said the cattle smugglers have now devised a new mode in which in a four wheeler the smugglers travel ahead of the trucks laden with cattle and manage things on the road for a clear passage of the cattle smuggling.
The modus operandi of the smugglers was the same here as police intercepted a cattle-laden four wheeler.
Shankar said police at once stripped the occupants of the four wheeler of their phones.
He said it had a quick reaction. Truck load of the cattle travelling behind this four wheeler took a U turn and began to go in the reverse direction.
“We also chased them and got nakabandi done under Chhaterpur police station,” said Shankar, adding the Chhaterpur SDPO Shambhu Kumar Singh was alerted by him.
He said a few cattle laden trucks parked their vehicles across the National highway giving an impression that it was for the night to be over but the cops knew what tricks these drivers were up-to and they got them.
Sources said more than fifteen people have been arrested in this cattle smuggling case.