A group of people, suspected to be right-wing activists, waylaid a truck transporting cows and allegedly beat up four persons who were in it, at Murdeshwara in Uttara Kannada district on Sunday night. Thirteen people have been arrested for the assault and for stealing cows from the truck.
According to the Murdeshwar police, 28 cows were being transported in the truck from a milk dairy in Gir, Gujarat, to a dairy at Thrissur in Kerala. The truck, which had left Gir on May 15, had two drivers and two cleaners.
Stones hurled
When the truck was passing through Murdeshwar on the National Highway 66 at 8 p.m. the group waylaid it and hurled stones. Later, it pulled out the four persons and assaulted them. Though the drivers said that they had permission for transporting the cows, the group did not bother to check the documents. Some persons in the group allegedly rained blows on some policemen who came to the spot. Later, the group members lowered the cows from the truck and started taking them away.
On a complaint by the injured truck driver, the Murdeshwar police arrested Janardhan, Nagaraj Nayak, Venkatesh, Kumar, Rama, Nagaraj Nayyar, Venkatesh, Bhaskar, Mahesh, Manjunath, Annappa, Shabhareesh, and Girish.
Uttara Kannada Superintendent of Police Vinayak Patil V. told The Hindu that the accused had been booked for dacoity and assault. Twenty four of the 28 cows that had been taken away from the truck have been recovered. Search is on for other people involved in the attack and for taking away the cows.
