A 29-year-old man was arrested from north-east Delhi’s Harsh Vihar on Wednesday for allegedly slaughtering a cow on Holi in March with the intention of creating communal tension, the police said.
The accused, identified as Imran, a resident of Ghaziabad, was hiding in Uttarakhand and had come to meet his family members near Loni from where he was nabbed in the morning, the police said.
Earlier, Imran’s accomplices Parvaiz, Lukman and Insallaham were nabbed by the police. A reward of ₹25,000 was announced on Imran’s arrest, the police said.
The incident was reported on Holi on March 21. The residents of Harsh Vihar had approached the police after they found the cattle’s dismembered parts and an animal foetus lying at a vacant plot.
The situation turned tense as the locals staged a protest against the alleged cow slaughter. The police pacified the protesters and the situation was brought under control.
A case was registered and a probe launched. Raids were conducted in Delhi and Uttarakhand and following a tip-off, Imran was nabbed, DCP (Special Cell) P.S. Kushwah said.
“During interrogation, he disclosed that the act was committed to disturb communal harmony and trigger a law and order situation in the Capital,” the officer said.
Imran’s family has a cattle business, he added. According to the plan, the accused slaughtered a cow and “mischievously” threw the body parts of the animal in Harsh Vihar, the DCP said.
Imran was also allegedly involved in poisoning a buffalo to death in 2016 in Loni. The same year, he was arrested by the Harsh Vihar police station in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the DCP said.
Imran kept on changing his hideouts in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi-NCR in order to evade arrest in the present case, the police said.