Cattle trafficking: Two policemen held for conniving with the traffickers

Team Udayavani, Jul 18, 2019, 3:42 PM IST

Kundapur: Two policemen were arrested after having being accused of working in cahoots with cattle transporters on Wednesday July 17. The nexus was revealed in the backdrop of the interception of a vehicle carrying cattle illegally near the tollgate at Sasthan on national highway 66 in the wee hours on July 12.

During the operation, cattle worth lakhs of rupees had been rescued. When the accused were subjected to rigorous interrogation, they sang of how police personnel had extended support to the gang of cattle thieves. This revelation led to the arrest of the two accused.

Arrested policemen

The arrested policemen are Santosh Shetty of Coastal Security Force at Malpe and Vinod Gowda, presently posted at Manki in Uttara Kannada district. It is learnt that names of four other police personnel including gunman of a senior police officer presently working in different police stations in the district have emerged during the questioning and the accused are currently absconding.

The operation

Reliable sources had informed Kota police sub-inspector, Nityananda Gowda that cattle were being illegally and inhumanly transported in a lorry that was provided security cover by an escort vehicle during the early hours of July 12. Based on the information, the SI intercepted the vehicles near Sasthan tollgate and arrested car driver, Shivananda, Maruti Narayan Naik who was in the car, lorry driver Zainuddin, and Ganeshan, Hameed C H, and Sameer who were in the lorry. 13 buffaloes worth Rs 65,000  and seven she buffaloes worth Rs 35,000 had been rescued. Additionally, cattle, lorry worth Rs 12 lakh and a Tata Indica car worth two lakh was seized.

Under interrogation the accused revealed they had stolen 20 cattle from somewhere and were being taken to a slaughterhouse in Kasaragod district. They also informed that some cops were in cahoots with them.

The arrested cops were produced in a court here on Wednesday and were remanded to 15 days judicial custody. A manhunt has been launched to locate the four other police personnel. Four other accused involved with this crime were taken into custody on Tuesday and subjected to interrogation.