The Guwahati Police has foiled a cattle smuggling bid and arrested one person during checking at the Jorabat police outpost in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district. Four cattle heads were rescued from an SUV vehicle when the car was intercepted by the police.
Speaking to ABP Live, the In-Charge (IC) of the Jorabat police outpost, Inspector Bhaskar Jyoti Das said, “We had received information that cattle may be smuggled in a car. Accordingly, we started checking all the small vehicles passing through the Jorabat area. Finally, we intercepted a brand new SUV, without any registration plate, at the link road in the Jorabat area along the Assam-Meghalaya inter-state border. On checking the vehicle, we found a total of four cattle heads, three on the rear seat and another in the boot space of the vehicle.”
“We immediately arrested the accused and rescued the cattle heads. Surprisingly, the car was brand new and had run only 480 kilometres. During interrogation of the accused, who hails from Samaguri in Assam’s Nagaon district, he revealed that he had brought the cattle heads from the state’s Jorhat district and was transporting them to Meghalaya’s Byrnihat area to be sold there,” he said.
Inspector Das further said that the accused used to work in Kerala and had returned to Assam only a few days ago and got involved in the cattle smuggling trade which is very lucrative.
“When we rescued the cattle heads from the vehicle, they were found to be tied up very mercilessly. It does not matter for the cattle smugglers whether they remain alive or die during transportation. We have registered a suo moto case against the accused and are now trying to ascertain the identity of the owner of the vehicle through its engine and chassis numbers. We are currently interrogating the accused and will produce him before the court later in the day,” Inspector Das added.
Smuggling of cattle has become a menace for the Assam Police as they often rescue hundreds of cattle heads and arrest several smugglers transporting them from different parts of Assam.
Most of these cattle heads are brought from different parts of the state and also make their way to Bangladesh through the porous borders of Assam and Meghalaya which shares international borders with the neighbouring country. The smugglers often try new methods to smuggle cattle.
The Assam police on October 1, 2022, had rescued 35 smuggled cattle heads from a passenger bus at Missa in Assam’s Nagaon district. It was the first instance in the state where smugglers had used a passenger bus to smuggle cattle. According to the police, an inter-state and international cattle smuggling racket is involved in the illegal trade.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in April 2022 had said that the cattle smuggling trade involves thousands of crores of Rupees and a portion of the money allegedly goes to the jihadi elements.