BHUBANESWAR: Six truckloads of cattle were intercepted and seized by the Commissionerate of Police on the outskirts of the City on Sunday night. As many as 300 cattleheads were recovered and drivers of the vehicles arrested.
The cattle were found piled on one another in the vehicles and many among those were 10 to 12 days old. The rescued animals have been shifted to a cattle shelter at Choudwar.
According to police, they were tipped off by an animal rights activist that cattle were being transported illegally through the Capital from Begunia in Khurdha district.
The trucks were trafficking cattle to three temporary stations in West Bengal, from where those would have been smuggled to Bangladesh to be slaughtered.
Preliminary investigation revealed that a well-oiled racket has been smuggling cattle for quite some years.
“Though we have informed the police on regular intervals about rampant trafficking of cows through the Capital, no action has been taken in this regard,” an activist said.
A case has been registered at Khandagiri police station under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, with IPC Sections 428 (mischief by killing or maiming animal of the value of 10 rupees), 429 (mischief by killing or maiming cattle) and under Section 96 of the Transport of Animal Rules.