2 main accused in Punjab cattle slaughter case arrested

PTI, Mar 18, 2022, 6:44 PM IST

The two main accused in the recent cattle slaughtering incident here have been arrested, police said on Friday.

Carcasses of at least 19 cattle were found at an abandoned place near a railway track close to Jhans village, six days ago.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Hoshiarpur, Dhruman H Nimbale named the arrested persons as Irshad Khan and Fariad Khan.

With these fresh arrests, the number of people nabbed by the police in connection with the incident has risen to 10.

Nimbale said the FIR in the case has been registered by the Government Railway Police in Jalandhar since the area of the crime falls under its jurisdiction.

As the incident came to light, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who was yet to take the oath then, had condemned the incident and asked the Director-General of Police to get a thorough probe conducted.

The police had arrested seven of the accused, including two women, within 36 hours of the occurrence of the crime. Another person was arrested later.

During the investigation, Irshad Khan emerged as the main accused in the case and the police raided various places in Gurdaspur and Khanna in Punjab. However, he was later arrested from Kaliyar Shareef in Uttar Pradesh.

His questioning led to the arrest of Fariad Khan, Nimbale stated in a press release.

The SSP said all the accused were involved in cattle smuggling. They bought cows and other cattle from one Satpal, alias Pappi, a resident of Kotli Sheikhan village. Satpal is an accused in several similar cases at various police stations in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts, Nimbale said. Irshad Khan also faces a case of cattle smuggling in Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh police station, the officer said.

In 2017, Khan and his father Nawab Khan were booked for alleged cattle slaughter and running an illegal slaughterhouse in Punjab’s Nihal Singh Wala village. They used to allegedly smuggle cattle from Malerkotla, Ludhiana, Khanna, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar, Nimbale said.

The SSP said the gang used to allegedly sell the meat to a trader in Uttar Pradesh. They have obtained two days of remand of all the accused and their further interrogation is underway.