Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Jun 5: Bajrang Dal Mangaluru leader Sharan Pumpwell, who is also the secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Tuesday June 5 slammed the police for registering a case of murder against Bajrang Dal activists arrested in connection to the death of cattle trader Hussainabba, and held the government's failure to reign in cattle trafficking as responsible for the incident.
Hussainabba was assaulted by Bajrang Dal activists in the wee hours of May 30 after his vehicle was waylaid at Perdoor for allegedly illegally trasporting cows. Ten persons including a VHP leader, Bajrang Dal activists and three cops have been arrested so far.
Address a press meet here, Sharan Pumpwell demanded that the government form a special police team just to control and curn illegal transport, theft and slaughter of cows.
"It is certain that at least two policemen were involved in the case. The police knew that Hussainabba had heart ailment and had undergone a bypass surgery. He could have suffered cardiac arrest, but the police have still gone on to book our activists under IPC section 302 (murder). We strongly oppose and condemn this and demand the government to conduct a high-level probe.
"Bajrang Dal activists were not involved in the incident at all. We have been giving information to the police about illegal trafficking, and we did the same here. Over the past 20-25 years such incidents have been repeating in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts, but the district administrations have failed to take action. Hence the district administration should be held responsible for this incident, because despite knowing that illegal abattoirs and cattle trafficking have been rampant, they have failed to take action. Whenever the Bajrang Dal gave information about this network, the police should have taken proactive action," he said.
"The only abattoir that has permission is the one in Kudroli in Mangaluru. But according to an RTI query, there are more than 3,000 beef stalls in the coastal region. Illegal abattoirs are functioning throughout the state. A Scorpio can accommodate only seven people, but 13 cows were forced into Hussainabba's Scorpio.
"This shows the government's failure to stop cattle trafficking. Hence, we demand that a special police squad be formed just for this purpose. As the government has not taken any action, we have taken it upon ourselves to do it," he added.
"Cow protection is the responsibility of every Hindu. We will never support cattle theft. We are not supporting Hussainabba's death, but only saying that all we did was to give information to the police about cattle trafficking. We were not involved. The police might have called some of our activists while registering the case of cattle trafficking, but that is all.
"The innocents arrested in this case should be released immediately. We also support the protest called by the BJP on this issue on Wednesday June 6," he said.
"How can the SP slap murder case on our activists even before the post-mortem report is out? On the one hand they said Hussainabba died of cardiac arrest, on the other hand they file murder case. It was the police who chased Hussainabba's vehicle, not us. We were not at all involved. Also, there was no injury found on Hussainabba's body, nor any weapon found at the spot. How can they conclude he was murdered?" he questioned.
Sunil K R, Surendra Koteshwar and Dinesh Hebri were present.