Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam: Seven tourists from Hyderabad and Delhi were roughed up and three of their women companions were allegedly molested by a group of cattle smugglers in the Rayagada district of Odisha on July 14. They were attacked after they reportedly protested the beating and torture of the animals by the traffickers. Of the seven tourists that included friends and their families, three were women. Three were from Hyderabad and four from Delhi and were on a sightseeing tour of Odisha.

Speaking to this newspaper over the phone, software engineer K.V Kanna, a resident of Kanta Reddy Nagar in Hyderabad, who sustained severe injuries, said it was God’s grace that they were alive.

“I had planned this tour along with my friend Sumant from Delhi. We were travelling with our wives and other family members when this incident occurred around 4 pm on July 14,” he said.

“The cattle traffickers were severely beating up the livestock after binding the legs of the animals with plastic ropes,” Mr Kanna said.