Tension prevailed for sometime in Siddipet for sometime as BJP, ABVP, RSS and other organisations tried to hold a rally protesting the slaughter of 16 cows by some persons the previous day. Police immediately took them into custody and released them later. As a precautionary measure, police picketing was enforced in the district headquarters town and an undeclared Section 144 was in force. At some places, police controlled some aggressive activists. BJP MLA M. Raghunandan Rao also visited the spot.
As many as 16 cows were slaughtered by the unidentified persons on Friday, which came to light by evening. Knowing this, police rushed to the spot and rescued the remaining animals and shifted them to goshala.
In a quick response to the incident of cow slaughter, the police arrested eight persons within six hours of the incident. After post-mortem, the carcasses were buried at the same place to avoid any untoward incidents. Police worked all the night, forming multiple teams to arrest the accused within hours.
A case was registered under sections 429, 153 and 153-A of IPC against those involved in the case, according to D. Joel Davis, Commissioner of Police, Siddipet. It was stated that as many as 68 cows were brought from villages in Karimnagar district, out of which 16 were slaughtered. Remaining 52 were were shifted to goshala.
The arrested were identified as Mohd. Jaber, Mohd. Kahaja, Mohd. Saddam, Mohd. Arafat, Mohd. Rahim, Mohd. Arshad, Mohd. Ashraf and Mohd. Javed. The Commissioner said they conducted a raid after they got credible information that cows were slaughtered in a shed. The remaining cows were shifted to a goshala for safe custody.
All the accused were presented before the First Class Judicial Magistrate on Saturday who sent them to a 14-day judicial custody. He has urged the people not to believe rumours and said that the culprits involved in cow slaughter would not be spared. He has also asked them to provide any information about unlawful activities and promised that police will act immediately.
