Mangalore: Police nab thieves who stole 20,000 cattle in nine years

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (EP)

Mangalore, Jan 1: The police on Tuesday December 31 arrested two notorious cattle thieves who are said to have stolen a whopping 20,000 cattle during the last nine years.

The accused are identified as Hussain Kabeer alias Kabbi alias Bodda Kabbi (35) and Jabbar Hussain alias Jabbi (26), residents of Churchgudde, Kalavar, and hailing from Pakeeranakatte, Kaup.

The two accused had reportedly entered the house belonging to Mahadevi at Kana on a night in July 2013 and hit a cow and a calf of a good breed with weapons and taken them away, threatening the inmates of assault with deadly weapons when they tried to stop them. They had taken the cattle in a Tata Sumo vehicle. The accused have said that the cattle were killed by them when they noticed the police following them, and the meat was handed over to a nearby slaughterhouse.

They had taken their vehicle to a service centre thinking that the police might have got the details of the vehicle and have never been to the service center to get it back since.

There were widespread protests in the district after the cattle theft. The accused have also said that they had stolen a cow from the shed of Jagadish Shetty of Mukka. Another accused in the theft is absconding.

The accused are said to have stolen cattle from Shringeri, Koppa, Chikmagalur, Moodigere, Kottigehara, Balehonnur, Agumbe, Begar, Maninakatte, Hariharapura, Kammaradi, Saksleshpur, Gonibeedu, Kushalnagar, Madikeri, Honnavara, Kumta, Bhatkal, Udupi and other places, and sold them to slaughterhouses at Mangalore, Kudroli, Jokatte, Bantwal, Melkar etc. They had stolen eight cows at once in the ghat area. They used to steal cows there when unable to get them elsewhere.

The accused have said that they have been stealing cattle for the last nine years and have stolen more than 20,000 cattle during the period.

The accused Hussain Kabeer is said to be a notorious interstate thief and an accomplice of notorious prisoner Kannaradi Hanif. Though the Chikmagalur court had issued a warrant to arrest him, he could not be traced. There are several criminal cases pending against Jabbar Hussain in different police stations in the district. However, he was wandering freely, allegedly supported by politicians and money power. He even appeared as chief guest in many social functions. He used to be invited as chief guest in some of the programmes soon after his release from prison.

A cow of good breed would fetch them Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000. If those are slaughtered, they used to get meat weighing 300 to 400 kg which would fetch more than Rs one lac. The accused were thus living a life of luxury. They had appointed some people to identify houses with cattle. The thefts were being conducted based on their information. They had also robbed jewellery from people by threatening them. There are cases of shootout against Hussain Kabeer in Manipal police station and attempt to murder cases in Karkala and Padubidri police stations. They had gone into hiding without appearing in the court.

Suratkal police have so far held five cattle thieves. It is assumed that many more cattle thieves are active in the state.

M A Nataraj, police inspector of Surathkal police station, sub inspector Rajendra B, M Kamareshan and team were part of the arrest operation.

MLA B A Mohiuddin Bava and Mangalore police commissioner R Hitendra congratulated the police team on the arrests.