CHENNAI: The banks of the Cooum river near Saidapet briefly turned into a slaughterhouse, with five men cutting up a dead cow and supplying it to a hotel employee.
When Express visited the spot on Saturday, a small dead cow that was wrapped in a gunny bag was brought to the banks of the Cooum, where it was skinned and chopped up.
At the spot, which was also a garbage dump, the meat was then washed with water from the river and handed to a man identified as a staff of a hotel in the locality. The scene unfolded around 1:30 pm.
The men refused to answer questions and asked the reporter to stop taking photographs. Meat that doesn’t have the Corporation stamp is usually seized during raids.
When contacted, a city corporation official said it might have been a one-off incident. “If it was happening regularly, we would have been informed and would have raided the spot. We will monitor the spot to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” the official said.