Cattle slaughter at wife’s house, accused denied bail

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has denied anticipatory bail to an accused who had slaughtered a cow for selling its meat. The accused claimed that the alleged place where the incident took place did not belong to him and the police had wrongly accused him of the crime.

The HC however noted that the premises belonged to the wife of the accused and therefore his contention was wrong. Javid Kureshi and Faruk Khalid approached the HC seeking anticipatory bail. A case against them is pending before a trial court in Chikkamagaluru.

The case was filed by the Town Police Station officers. They are charged under Sections 4 and 12 of the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act. The alleged incident dates to August 7, 2022.

The sub-inspector of the said police station submitted the complaint that at 8 am, while on patrolling duty with his staff, he received information about slaughtering of cattle and selling the same at Sitaram Building near Aksa Masjid in the city. When the police went to the spot, the accused allegedly fled from the place.

The police found the “beef hanged to the hook, there were 12 legs, 2 heads, 3 sickles, 2 knives, 1 steel hook, 2 sharping Ara, 2 white coloured fridges along with 1 electronic weighing machine.” The police seized it. Javid and Faruk’s bail plea before the Sessions Judge was rejected.

Approaching the HC, Javid claimed that he was not involved in the alleged crime as he did not possess any property in the said Sitaram Building road. The HC however noted that, “On the contrary, the documents produced by the prosecution disclose that the property was owned by the wife of the petitioner No.1 and in this regard a letter was placed by the prosecution for perusal of this Court. This document clearly disclose that submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner that petitioner No.1 did not possess any property holds no water as the property was standing in the name of his wife.”

The HC rejected the bail plea stating, “it is evident that it is a specific allegation that the petitioner was carrying out a slaughtering business. Further it is also evident that the petitioner was already involved in similar offences and the matter is still at the stage of investigation and petitioners are absconding all along.”