On Saturday, 23rd June, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav issued an order to remove SP Rakesh Singh and District Collector Kshitij Singhal. Sanskriti Jain and Sunil Kumar Mehta have been named as new Collector and SP, respectively.
The Madhya Pradesh CM has also directed ADG-CID Pawan Srivastava of the state police headquarters to investigate the incident of cow slaughter, in which five people were arrested.
This came after 54 cow carcasses with severed heads and limbs were found in two locations, along the Wainganga River in Dhanora and in the Kakartala forest last week. Following the findings, several Hindu groups protested in the area. Meanwhile, police teams from Seoni have been dispatched to Nagpur, Maharashtra, to arrest those responsible for the interstate cow smuggling ring.
So far, police have booked 12 people and arrested five of them.
Out of the 12, few accused are from Nagpur as well. Of the five who have been arrested so far, four persons were produced before Court on Saturday and the fifth will be produced before the Court on Sunday. Two of the four individuals who appeared in court were subjected to NSA provisions, according to SP Seoni Rakesh Singh. Singh added that the search for other accused persons is currently underway.
Notably, Seoni and its surrounding areas Balaghat and Betul, are notorious for cow smuggling and unlawful slaughter. Reports say that almost 7,000 cattle that had been trafficked or transported illegally have been rescued around the state, with over 1,000 persons arrested in the past six months.
In another incident, the National Security Act was invoked against two of the five arrested accused identified as Asgar and Retua. This came after the police recovered two sacks of cow meat, bones, and skin from a house in the Bengali Colony in Noorabad village in Morena. The action was taken on the complaint lodged by a local villager Anipal Gujjar. The complainant said that he saw the accused persons slaughtering a cow. When Gujjar opposed this, Asgar and other accused attacked him on Friday.
Following the incident, members from multiple Hindu rights organisations protested and blocked roads on Saturday. According to sub-divisional officer of police Adarsh Shukla, the police have filed charges against nine people for rioting, assaulting, and intimidating others under the MP Anti-Cow Slaughtering Act, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and the Indian Penal Code. Notably, the offence of cow slaughter carries a prison sentence of up to seven years in Madhya Pradesh.
मध्यप्रदेश सरकार लॉ एंड ऑर्डर को लेकर बहुत गंभीर है…
— Chief Minister, MP (@CMMadhyaPradesh) June 23, 2024
सभी जिलों को स्पष्ट निर्देश हैं कि जो भी गोवध अधिनियम के अंतर्गत अपराध करेगा, उसके खिलाफ कड़ी कार्रवाई होना चाहिए। कार्रवाई की मॉनिटरिंग प्रदेश लेवल पर की जा रही है। सिवनी की घटना में भी कठोर कार्रवाई की गई है।
प्रदेश में… pic.twitter.com/Yxy0MuAj8p
On Sunday, CM Mohan Yadav said that no laxity of any kind will be tolerated in the cow slaughter cases. “Madhya Pradesh government is very serious about law and order… There are clear instructions to all the districts that strict action should be taken against anyone who commits a crime under the Cow Slaughter Act. The action is being monitored at the state level. Strict action has also been taken in the Seoni incident. No laxity of any kind will be tolerated in the state,” the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister said.
