A software engineer, Kanan, along with his wife and her two friends were brutally assaulted by a mob of armed meat mafia goons on Friday evening.

"It was about 4pm on Friday when all four of us were sightseeing in village Khedapoda, Chandili when we saw some gangster like men armed with sticks and knives, severely beating cattle," said Kanan, who took videos and clicked pictures of the distressed animals before dialling the #100 number for police and senior officials of the locality including SP Rahul. The police, however, did not come to the site.

"With no response from the police and SP Rahul, we tried reasoning with the goons ourselves. Little did we know, that they would attack us with the same sticks and axes with which they were beating the animals. I was attacked while my wife was molested by these barbarians. They snatched and smashed my phone which had all recordings. It's a miracle we are still alive. Seeing the lawlessness here, would not like to come back to Odisha," Kanan, elaborated further.

Kanan is undergoing treatment. A case has been filed in Chandili Police Station, but no arrests have been made for the assault and no cattle have been seized till now.

SP Rahul evaded India Today's calls and was not available for a comment.

Sources revealed that 1000's of cattle are smuggled for slaughter on foot from Odisha to Andhra Pradesh through the vast rainforest cover in Odisha on a weekly basis. This is the same belt where Kanan and his wife and friends were attacked. This is not the first case of growing lawlessness in Odisha, where criminals are at large and police is missing in action.

RECENT CASES OF ATTACKS

- Earlier this week, in Odisha's Raigada district, animal activists informed police of several hundred cattle being smuggled on foot through the Chandili rainforest area in the middle of the night (with photographs and videos for proof). On arriving at the spot, the police official from Chandili Police was seen ushering cattle smugglers to hide the animals and no case was filed on the grounds that no cattle were found. India Today has access to photographs and videos to prove that cattle were indeed being taken on foot and audio recordings of police officials saying that no cattle were found on the spot.

- Recently, animal lovers Teertho and Niranjan, were pelted with stones and beaten with sticks by meat mafia goons for visiting and clicking photographs at an animal fair, in Kaalapatthar, Beguniya district of Odisha. Niranjan was wounded on the head while Teertho was severely attacked and his wallet, phone and passport were stolen.

- Shifting focus to Karanataka, Thimaraju, an AWBI officer, was thrashed by a mob of meat mafia goons last month, in the presence of police officials, for bringing to light the workings of an illegal slaughter house in Channarayapatna, Hassan district. "I went for a visit with police officials to the illegal slaughterhouse where we found hoards of calves locked inside a small room. On releasing the animals, we were returning towards the PCR van when I heard a mob of butchers chasing me and surprisingly no police officer was there in sight for my protection. I was hit on the head and thrashed in front of the Police PCR van. The police had conveniently vanished for those few minutes."

This is a brief list of recent cases of attacks by meat mafia goons on tourists, animal lovers, AWBI officers and genuine gau rakshaks. In the above cases, even when police was informed of illegalities in their jurisdiction, no action was taken indicating a strong nexus between the police and the rampant meat-mafia in India which does not spare women or tourists.

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