The incident of 26 cattle missing from a goshala, a shelter for cattle, almost a year back re-surfaced in the Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) meeting in Kalaburagi on December 20, putting officials of Home, Animal Husbandry and other departments concerned in a tight spot.
Equipped with authentic records and a recent court order, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge, who presided over the meeting, raised the issue. During the deliberations that followed, officials admitted that the cattle in question were shifted from an authorised goshala in Kalaburagi to an ‘unauthorised and non-existent’ goshala in Sedam after obtaining permission from the Assistant Commissioner and Additional Deputy Commissioner. They also informed that the cattle are missing as they were not found at the goshala in Sedam.
Terming it as a racket of cattle smuggling in which police and other officials were involved, Mr. Kharge questioned what action was taken against the goshala and the officials involved. The Minister did not get a response from any official.
“The modus operandi is that the so-called gorakshaks [right-wing activists], who don’t have anything constructive to do, will first register a false complaint with the police requesting them to rescue cattle which, according to them, are being smuggled for slaughter. The police, without verifying facts and genuineness of the complaint, raid and seize the cattle even though they belong to genuine farmers who have kept them for farming purposes. The sized cattle then go missing and reach slaughterhouses in Hyderabad,” Mr Kharge said.
Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil, who represented Sedam constituency in the Assembly, was clueless about the fact that the cattle was missing after they were shown as shifted to a goshala in his constituency.
The Ministers directed Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum and Kalaburagi city Police Commissioner Chetan R. to thoroughly probe the incident and submit a detailed report with the names of the officials, so-called gorakshaks and the goshalas involved in the case.
“The profits of the cattle smuggling are shared by all those involved. A part of the profit also goes to the so-called gorakshaks. Surprisingly, no action was taken against personnel of University Police Station who, without verifying facts, seized the cattle, even after one year. The matter came to light because of the recent court order. The court directed the officials to release the cattle and hand them over to their owners. But, the cattle were missing. In this case, 36 cattle are missing. As for my information, as many as 96 cattle are missing in total,” Mr. Kharge alleged.
