A hotel owner at Beluvai near Moodbidri has alleged that Bajrang Dal activists, accompanied by the police, barged into his house on Sunday midnight and forcibly took away a calf he was rearing to the Moodbidri police station accusing him of harbouring the animal to butcher it.
Addressing presspersons at Moodbidri, Mohammed Shakir (42), who runs Bismillah Hotel at Beluvai, said that he was rearing the calf for the past eight months at his house. He had purchased it from some one in the village by paying Rs. 2,000 to feed it leftover food from the hotel. It had angered some Bajrang Dal activists, he said.
Mr. Shakir alleged that about 10-15 Bajrang Dal activists, including Bhaskar Acharya, president, Beluvai Gram Panchayat, and Srinath, president, Padumarnadu Gram Panchayat, raised a ruckus at his house on the midnight of November 13. They alleged that he was selling beef in his hotel and the calf was meant to be slaughtered. Asking where he had hidden the beef, the activists threatened him, he alleged.
Mr. Shakir said that his aged mother, wife and three children were terrified and his mother had been hospitalised. To a question, he said he did not feel the need to file a complaint as the police were witness to it.
Moodbidri Police Inspector Ramachandra Naik told The Hindu that the police did not accompany any group or individual. They had gone to the spot after hearing that people had gathered there and dispersed them. “As the controversy was around the calf, we secured it so as not to invite trouble,” he said.
Asked whether police have taken any action against the group members, he said no complaint had been filed. If there was trespass into the house, the victim should have complained, Mr. Naik said.
Mr. Acharya denied the allegation that the activists had gone inside the house. “The activists were standing outside the compound wall after informing the police. Only two police constables went inside. The police took the calf to the station,” he said.
Mohammed Shakir
of Moodbidri
says he was harrassed for
rearing a calf
