GUWAHATI, July 2: Nearly 200 people were arrested in connection with the alleged violation of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act and over 1.7 tonnes of suspected beef were seized across the state, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.
According to Inspector General Police (Law and Order) Akhilesh Kumar Singh, a drive was launched across Assam on Tuesday to check reported incidents of illegal cattle slaughter and selling of beef in restaurants unauthorisedly.
“The operation against violation of the Act started yesterday and we have apprehended 196 people so far. We have also seized 1,732 kgs of suspected beef from various places across the state,” he told PTI.
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In the last two days, police have searched 178 hotels, restaurants and slaughterhouses in almost all districts of Assam, Singh said.
He asserted that the drive against the violation of the Act will continue in the coming days.
Consumption of beef is not illegal in Assam, but the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021, bans cattle slaughter and sale of beef in localities where Hindus, Jains and Sikhs are in a majority and in areas within a five-km radius of a temple or satra (Vaishnavite monastery).
On the first day of the drive, the police apprehended 133 people after raiding 112 hotels and seized more than one tonne of suspected beef from across the state.
“The main intention of the drive is to stop violation of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act. We raided hotels and restaurants, registered dozens of cases at many police stations across the state and picked up scores of people,” Singh had said on Tuesday.
On June 8, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that a number of cattle were allegedly slaughtered illegally at several places during Eid festival and parts of the meat were thrown at multiple locations across the state.
The police arrested around 80 people in Dhubri, Hojai, Goalpara and Lakhimpur districts for allegedly throwing parts of the meat.
Sarma had, on June 20, said that the implementation of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act would strictly be enforced in all districts of the state to prevent availability and consumption of beef within a five-km radius of religious places of worship.
“The availability and consumption of beef during the recent Eid festival, despite the ban within a 5 km radius of temples and other places of worship, is a very serious matter. In this regard, we will take strict action under the Assam Cattle Preservation Act,” the CM had said at a press conference. (PTI)
