Barely a few hours after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal staged a protest in Mangaluru on Thursday against illegal transportation of cows, one of their activists was arrested by the police on the charge on doing exactly that near Vitla.
In a release, Ravikanthe Gowda, Superintendent of Police of Dakshina Kannada, said that 48-year-old Shashi Kumar, son of Krishna Bhat of Padaru village near Vitla in Bantwal taluk, was the arrested. He is a Bajrang Dal activist. Along with him, the police also arrested Abdul Harris, 21, son of Mohammed of Kolandu village in the same taluk.
On a tip-off, Vitla police sub-inspector Nagaraj H.E. and his team stopped a mini-truck at the Kadambu junction near Vitla Padnur around 11 p.m. on Thursday. They found in the vehicle four cows and a calf, all tied together.
They were being taken to Kerala through Salethur. Kumar, an agriculturist, was providing protection to Harris for transporting cows till Salethur, from where the vehicle was supposed to enter Kerala. According to the police, a Bajrang Dal activist tipped them off on the matter.
They said the accused did not have any documents for transporting cattle. The had also allegedly modified the body of the truck to make it resemble a vehicle transporting construction material. The police said Harris was involved in a few criminal cases, including one of cattle theft in Alike in Bantwal taluk earlier. He also has cases registered against him at the Konaje police station in Mangaluru.
VHP denial
Meanwhile, Vishwa Hindu Parishad zonal secretary and former State president of Bajrang Dal Sharan Pumpwell claimed that Kumar was not associated with the Bajrang Dal, the VHP or any other right-wing outfit. He alleged that the police have linked him with the Bajrang Dal only to bring disrepute to the organisation.
Meanwhile, in separate incidents, the Mangaluru City police on Friday arrested Imran, 27, and Umar Farooq, 32, for allegedly stealing cows from a cow shed in Moodushedde on July 16. Following this, the VHP and Bajrang Dal had staged a protest at Vamanjoor.