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CHENNAI: Police rescued a dozen cats which would have ended up on a plate of biryani served up by roadside eateries in Tirumullaivoyal on Friday.

The recovery comes after a week-long investigation in various pockets of the city such as Avadi, Pallavaram, Tirumullaivoyal, Poompozhil Nagar near Avadi and Kannikapuram — localities having narikurava settlements.

The case was taken up after a number of residents at Balaji Nagar in Royapettah reported that their pet cats had gone missing around Pongal.

“The day after Pongal, my cat went out. It has been un-traceable since,” said M Hema, a resident. After similar stories were recounted by several cat owners in the city, some of the owners and a team of animal activists filed a complaint with the city police commissioner A K Viswanathan last month. “Most of these pets are trapped by narikuravas (gypsies) for their meat that is sold to roadside eateries. This has been happening for at least two decades now,” alleged People for Animals (PfA) co-founder Shiranee Pereira.

Following the complaint, a team from the intelligence wing of the city police swung into action. “In the past week, police officers approached narikuravas under the pretext of being prospective cat meat buyers. However, getting information from them was not that easy said the officer as the meat is not sold to everyone and strangers asking for cat meat are usually not entertained,” said a senior police officer.

Finally, the team was able to crack down on a group of gypsies in Tirumullaivoyal. The dozen cats were found in gunny bags in a bad condition. Three other cats were found dead packed in another gunny bag. The rescued cats were taken to the PfA shelter in Sengundram for rehabilitation, Shiranee said. Narikuravas who had trapped and killed the cats were warned by police.

