In another incident of violence by cattle smugglers, one local youth Sonu, residing in Mohanpur village under Bilsanda police station area in Philbhit, Uttar Pardesh has been shot to death for trying to stop the smugglers on the night of August 22.
At around 10 pm on Wednesday, Sonu, an artist in a local orchestra, was sleeping outside his house when he saw some butchers and cattle traders trying to stuff the stolen cattle in a pickup van on the other side of the road.
On seeing this Sonu started protesting and reportedly tried to confront the smugglers. The cattle smugglers allegedly started beating Sonu on the spot. When Sonu’s family members and local residents gathered, the smugglers reportedly started firing from a gun. One bullet had hit Sonu.
Sonu who was seriously injured by the bullet was rushed to the district hospital, from where he was sent to the hospital in Bareilly. He succumbed to his injuries on the way.
After receiving the news of the incident, the police reached the village at night and took information about the matter from the locals. At present, the police have sent the body for postmortem and the matter is being investigated.
This is, however, not the first such incident. Similar cases of Gau Rakshak’s being killed trying to oppose the crime has previously also come to the fore. On July 31, a ‘Gau Rakshak’ named Gopal had been killed after he was shot dead by a cattle smuggling gang. The incident occurred in a village near Palwal, Haryana.
On June 19, in a similar case, a person named Vikas Sharma, a resident of Natthu Colony, Ballabhgarh in Haryana was killed after he tried to stop the cattle smugglers. An FIR had been subsequently registered by the police against six persons identified as Arif (a resident of Utawad, Palwal), Tassi (a resident of Punhana), Subin (a resident of Dhauj), Teeman (a resident of Bibipur) and Tareef (a resident of Nuh).
