A Gujarat court has sentenced a man for six months in jail for letting loose his cattle and causing trouble to people. The man, identified as Prakash Jairam Desai, has been found guilty of leaving his cows loose on streets and hence endangering people’s lives.
Additional sessions judge Saranga Vyas also sentenced him for two years for threatening a team of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s cattle nuisance control department (CNCD). The team had gone to impound stray cattle.
A resident of Shahpur, Prakash Jairam Desai was booked when a CNCD team found five animals near Shantipur Chhapra, outside Shahpur Darwaja in July 2019. Desai mistreated the members of the team and even threatened to get them caught by anti-corruption bureau officials.
The man has been charged under sections 308, 186, 506(2) of the IPC, under the Gujarat Police Act and under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. The court noted in its judgement that two panch witnesses did not support the prosecution’s case as they too belong to the Desai community.
However, members of the CNCD team testified against him. The court said that as nobody was injured, IPC section 308 would not be applicable here. But the court found him guilty of letting his cows loose on roads without making proper arrangements and putting people’s lives in danger.
The Gujarat High Court on October 18 has said that state government’s steps towards tackling stray cattle issue have largely remained on paper with no action on ground. The court instructed the authorities to execute the orders of the Gujarat HC that was issued in a similar case via PIL.
The concern over stray cattle has been one of the core issues in several states including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The state governments claim to have done work in this regard but the recent judgement of a court in Gujarat shows otherwise.