Five people were booked by the police for allegedly slaughtering a cow in Manubankul village in the town of Sabroom in South Tripura on Thursday.
The calls for detaining the five people, reportedly migrant labourers, came from locals and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists (VHP).
Twenty-year-old Mohammad Suman Ali, 47-year-old Mohammad Farzul Haque, and 42-year-old Mohammad Saiful Islam, 45-year-old Abdul Zalil, and 42-year-old Mohammed Zainuddin — all of whom hail from Kampur village in Assam — were detained by the police. They were, then, let off on bail on the same day.
South Tripura District’s Superintendent of Police, Jal Singh Meena told the Indian Express, “They slaughtered the cow, hiding from the public. But, somehow local people got to know (about this), and an angry group of people was holding them up and were about to assault them. We had to detain them and bring them away. They were produced before a local court where the judge released them on bail.”
Confirming that a cow has been slaughtered, Biplab Sen, the South Tripura District’s VHP president didn’t condemn the lynching incident. However, he went on to allege that two of the five workers were Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
Incidentally, cow slaughter is not banned — in entirety — in the state. The five people were booked under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Section 429 of the IPC refers to committing “mischief by killing or maiming cattle, etc., of any value or any animal of the value of fifty rupees.”