Protest against Odisha police helping cow smuggling

New Delhi : Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, in a written request, has sought Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s personal intervention in checking cattle-smuggling through Odisha and demanded action against the police officials aiding the crime.

“Repeated pleas to the police to enforce the animal welfare laws and to protect the mute animals against smuggling/slaughter,” she said, “have fallen on deaf ears.”

“It is common knowledge that smuggling of cattle from Odisha into West Bengal is rampant and the police largely turn a blind eye to the crime or are hand-in-glove with the cattle mafia. The police complicity in the crime is what explains its alarming proportions,” wrote Gandhi.

The letter, dated Nov 2, 2016, along with a bunch of supporting documents, was handed over to Odisha’s Resident Commissioner in Delhi–after a peaceful demonstration by about 200 animal welfare activists outside Orissa Nivas in Chanakyapuri on Friday.

The participants in the demonstration were Gau Gyan Foundation, which has done extensive cattle rescue and rehabilitation work in Odisha over the last four years; Maneka Gandhi’s People for Animals (PFA) and Dhyan Foundation, a Delhi-based spiritual NGO, deeply into bird and animal rescues.

The participants chanted, “Band Karo Band Karo, Gau Hatya Band Karo” .”The banners at the demo read, “gau hatya desh hatya” and “gau Bachao desh bachao.”

Gandhi also demanded action against five senior Balasore police officials, who, she alleged, “aided the crime of cattle-smuggling and slaughter.”

“From the midnight of August 24, 2016, to the morning of August 30, 2016, the Balasore police, under the supervision of the IICs of the Balasore district police stations on NH 5, openly helped the cattle mafia take 70 truckloads to West Bengal for the purpose of slaughter. Each truck purportedly carried 16 cattle, which, according to the Balasore police, was “legal.” In six days, a total of 1,120 cattle were officially sent for slaughter.”

This, said Gandhi, was in brazen violation of the Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the Motor Vehicles Act.

The Balasore police officials named in the letter are:  DSP(Crime) and SDPO Amresh Panda, Khantapada IIC Sudarshan Das, Jaleswar PS IIC Chandan Gadhai, Sadar IIC Dayanidhi Dash and Industrial IIC Paresh Rout.

“It was only when the SP of Bhadrak, from where the trucks had been coming, put his foot down against the illegality that the Balasore police stopped facilitating the illegal transportation.”

This, the Minister said, was “a telling example of how the Balasore police are aiding the crime of cattle-smuggling/slaughter.”

She based her letter on a study of the crime patterns done by Gau Gyan Foundation and urged the chief minister to take “stringent and lasting measures” to check the crime.

According to GGF, on an average, 100 trucks, sealed containers and pick-up vans pass through Balasore each day, mostly during the night and wee hours of the morning. Translated into numbers, it means a daily average of 5,000 cattle smuggled into the slaughter houses of West Bengal and Bangladesh. NH 5 and, to a lesser extent, NH 6, invite traffic from all over Odisha, also from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

Quoting the study, Gandhi said, “The Balasore police go to such lengths to help the smugglers because they are paid huge bribes.” As per the study, the bribe is one thousand rupees per truck to each of the NH 5 police stations. At the rate of a modest traffic of 100 smuggler trucks per night (which goes up to 150 and 200 before Bakr’id), this comes to 100,000 rupees every night.

“In October 2013, GGF gave the then DGP of Odisha photographic evidence about cow slaughter happening openly in Jamu Sahi, Khorda. The slaughter continues till date.”

“In August 2016, I wrote to the present DGP of Odisha about the complicity of the Balasore police in the illegal transportation of cattle. I have not received any response from him.”

Underlining that “this indicates a very sorry state of affairs”, Gandhi told the CM: “Nothing short of your personal attention to the matter would do. Please intervene to save the thousands of cattle being sent for slaughter each day and bring to book the Balasore police officials mentioned above.”