Alwar: In a major operation in Alwar, the quick response team (QRT) along with the Neemrana police arrested a cow smuggler and rescued 23 cows on Friday.
Though the smugglers had a country-made pistol, the police team ensured that there was no exchange of fire with culprits while chasing them.
Recently, the police had come under allegations of carrying out fake encounters against cow smugglers. The QRT and the police team moved in on the smugglers, who were in a container truck, cautiously and managed to arrest one person. Three of them managed to flee from the scene.
"Out of the 23 cows, two were already dead. The rest have been sent to a local cow shelter," said an officer.
The police team found drugs and sedatives that may have been used to make the cows unconscious in the container. "We have seized some injections and intravenous drugs from the truck which were used to drug cows," the officer added.
Around 1am on Friday, the QRT and the local police got a tip-off that a container with cows was on National Highway 8 near Shahjahanpur, connecting Jaipur to Delhi. It was coming from Shahpura near Jaipur and going towards Neemrana.
"We got an alert and were directed to catch the smugglers. The driver of the container was moving the vehicle in a zigzag manner and was chased for almost 12km. Nobody opened fire and we also informed our team at Neemrana. Our men blocked the container with a truck and managed to bring it to a halt. Three smugglers fled from the scene while one, identified as Sammo Khan (41), surrendered," said a senior officer who was part of the QRT team.
This is probably the first encounter in recent times in which neither the police team nor the smugglers opened fire.
Police are taking the help of veterinary doctors about the drugs used on animals.
The accused, Sammo Khan, confessed that Sabu Khan, one of the accused who managed to flee, had a country-made pistol with him but did not fire in fear of police. "The accused has confessed that the cows were being smuggled to the Nooh Mewat area of Haryana," the officer added.
