Police had seized 3 tractors ferrying 16 cows in Bulandshahr in November

LUCKNOW: UP Police have begun a manhunt to find owner of 14 cattle which were allegedly slaughtered near Chingravati village -- the trigger behind Bulandshahr riots on December 3 — saying it is not clear if the animals were stolen or stray.On Monday, UP Police had registered two cases, first involving alleged cow slaughter on complaint of Bajrang Dal district coordinator Yogesh Raj and second on the violent clashes and riots leading to killing of policeman Subodh Kumar Singh and civilian Sumit.“There has been no case of theft reported. But we are sending our teams daily to at least six villages on the highway and four inside Syana to ask people if they have had any missing cows,” said a top UP Police official.UP Police refused to comment if these cattle were being traded amid a possibility of illegal trade considering that the crackdown by the Yogi Adityanath government launched a year ago in the state has instilled a fear among those involved in the business. “So far, we have not been able to identify those killed the cattle,” said a UP Police official, adding that “probe on killers of cow was equal priority to as finding killers of policeman and civilian.”UP chief minister, too, in a meeting on Thursday with principal secretary (home) Arvind Kumar, DGP O P Singh and other senior police officials had directed them to first launch a crackdown on illegal cow trade forthwith. Neither the .32 bore weapon which was used to fire bullets to kill inspector Subodh Singh nor any of the Bajrang Dal men have been nabbed yet.Sources in UP Police, however, said that they had in November nabbed three tractors near Bulandshahr which were transporting 16 cows but had purchase deeds worth Rs 3 lakh.The UP Police on Sunday also disclosed that they have registered 3,650 criminal cases under UP Cow Protection Act, 1955 between June 2017 and November 2018 under the Yogi government. It also said that 10,613 were booked for the violation of the cow protection act during the same period.