ALWAR: Police on Tuesday arrested Maqsood Khan along with

for alleged cow smuggling in an oil tanker in Khaidli,

district.

Maqsood is the son of Ummar Khan, who was shot dead in November 2017, by cow vigilantes after they stopped three persons who were allegedly transporting some cows from Alwar to a village in Bharatpur. As they reached near Govindgarh, they were stopped by ‘gau rakshaks’ and attacked with firearms. According to officials, 22-year-old Maqsood has followed in his father’s footsteps to take up this trade even though after Ummar’s death, his family was given donations running into lakhs by the

and Haryana government as well as other organisations.

The gang of six alleged cow smugglers arrested by the police on a tip-off, according to which the men were roaming around in the area in a Swift Desire along with an oil tanker, in which they were picking up stray cows from the fields in the village. Elaborating on the details, Umesh Beniwal, SHO, Khaidli police station told TOI, “We got information about this gang and around midnight on Monday, we reached the location where the accused were said to be looking for stray cattle and arrested them on the spot. While searching the six individuals, we found one country-made pistol and nine live bullets on them. In the car also, we found 40 bottles of alcohol and 50 litres of country liquor along with red chilli powder, rope etc.” However, no cow was recovered from their possession.

After further questioning, all six, which include Liyaqat Khan, Shabbir Khan, Sameen Khan, Asroo Khan, Irshad Khan and Maqsood were arrested. “In last three months, we had multiple confrontations with the alleged cow smugglers in the area following which the senior officials had asked to keep an eye on this particular gang. Sameen and Asroo are the main players of this gang and Maqsood, whose father was killed on suspicion of being a cow smuggler, also works for them. In fact, his father, Ummar also has three cases of cow smuggling filed against him. This gang also has multiple cases of loot and attack on police personnel filed against them in both Haryana and Rajasthan. When they could not find any cows, they would resort to looting,” added Beniwal.

During the interrogation, one of the ringleaders, Sameen Khan revealed that he has been smuggling cows for several years now and said, “We would steal the cows from here to a pre-decided location and from there, they would be taken to Firozpur and sold for at least Rs 15,000 per cow. If more than six cows were taken in one trip, then it would mean an earning of Rs 1 lakh approximately. Also since beef is cheaper than other meat, it is in high demand and is supplied to places like Delhi, Noida and other parts of Uttar Pradesh.”