NEW DELHI: Two mutilated carcasses of cows were found near the Sanjay Lake opposite Kotla village, leading to tense moments in East Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area on Wednesday. Taking no chances, a large number of police personnel were deployed in the area immediately after the incident was reported at 6 am.
Amid rumours that the act was perpetrated to create communal unrest, the villagers and other public rushed to the area. The nearby roads became jam-packed in no time with the arrival of the police especially to prevent any untoward incident in the adjoining communally sensitive Trilokpuri area.
“Thankfully, the cows did not belong to anyone from Trilokpuri; otherwise their (Muslims’) Rozas would have got affected,” someone in the crowd said.
The owner of the cows, Rai Singh, who runs a milk dairy in the village, said the killing “had nothing to do with caste or religion”. He alleged the involvement of a neighbour.
“The ground, where we tie our cattle belongs to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), but my neighbour claims it belongs to him. He regularly complains about mosquitoes and flies breeding in the area.
“We also had an argument over the same about a month ago. He has been missing from his house for the past three days, but we are sure that he is involved in the incident,” Singh told this newspaper.
The cattle owner’s son Ravi said he had tied 15 cows at the ground the previous day. “When I reached the spot today around 5 am, I found two cows missing. A neighbour told me that he saw the carcasses nearby. I found the carcasses and they were our cows,” he added.
The incident comes four days before the national capital is scheduled to go for the Lok Sabha polls on May 12.Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jasmeet Singh said a case was registered under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the Delhi Cattle Prevention Act and Section 429 (mischief by killing or maiming cattle) of the Indian Penal Code.
“We had deployed about 70 police personnel in the area as a preventive measure,” the police officer said, adding all possible angles were being probed.
DMC writes to police chief
Taking a serious note of the killing and the subsequent agitation of ‘saffron elements’ in front of the Pandav Nagar Police Station, Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) chairman Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan wrote to the city police chief warning that miscreants may try to use the incident to start a riot in the area. This, Khan said, might lead to polarisation in the forthcoming elections. The DMC chairman asked the police commissioner to ensure peace in the area and arrest the criminals involved in the killing.