CHANDIGARH: SOON after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at cow vigilantes, police have booked Punjab Gau Raksha Dal president Satish Kumar and 20 others for allegedly beating up truck drivers carrying cows.
The Rajpura police registered a case on Sunday evening based on mobile video clips circulating on social media. Members of the cow protection group had allegedly beaten up the truck drivers, recorded it and uploaded the video on social networking sites including YouTube.
The case has been registered against Satish Kumar, Gurpreet, Happy, Gauri, Kala, Anu and other unidentified people for having made preparations for causing death, extortion, wrongfully restraining a person and threatening.
Sources said the police were investigating since there were many such videos uploaded on different sites. One such video allegedly uploaded by the accused shows the vigilantes beating up and blackening the faces of the alleged smugglers. It also shows dead cows.
Patiala SSP Gurmeet Chauhan said, “In the video on social networking sites Gau Raksha Dal members can be seen brutally thrashing truck drivers in the name of cow protection. We are checking the authenticity of it. The accused have been asked to join the investigation to avoid arrest.”
DGP Suresh Arora said, “We have registered a couple of cases and asked the district police officers concerned to probe them and take action.”
Sources said cow protection groups had been terrorising truck operators, dragging them out of their vehicles, beating them up with rods and torching their vehicles.
Punjab Progressive Dairy Farmers’ Association president Daljit Singh said, “The cow protection groups have been beating up traders and dairy farmers and extorting money from them.”
According to the Punjab Gau Sewa Commission, there were around 1.6 lakh stray cattle roaming across the state. The police action came a day after Modi said that “fake” cow protectors should be exposed and punished, and asked state governments to take action against such elements.