Pune: 12 men land in trouble for holding bullock cart race

PUNE: The Bharati Vidyapeeth police on Saturday arrested 12 men on the charge of organising a bullock cart race illegally at Gujarwadi near Katraj and pushing a police constable who attempted to prevent the race.
The arrested men are from Gujarwadi, Kondhwa, Warje, Bhor, Raigad, Velhe, Urali Kanchan and other areas, police said. The bullock cart race was organised at the foot of a hill located between Bopdev and Katraj ghats at 9am on Saturday.
Sub-inspector Nitin Shinde of Bharati Vidyapeeth police station said, “The two main organisers, Santosh Nanaware (44) of Kondhwa and Rahul Chaudhary (34) of Warje, are among the arrested men. They do not bet on the races. They do it as a passion and a hobby. Another arrested man, Pandharinath Jagan Phadke, (55), of Panvel, is a prominent name in bullock cart racing. He uploads videos of bullock cart races on different social networking sites. All the men are from business families and are farmers.”
After receiving a call, police constable Ravindra Chippa and his colleague reached the spot around 10.30am. The two policemen ordered the organisers to stop the race but they did not pay any heed to them. Despite warning, they raced a bullock cart away from the spot. “They had created a small racing track,” Shinde said.
The arrested men then started arguing with the policemen and pushed Chippa away. The police said around 60 to 70 persons had gathered at the spot.
Police said the men were torturing the bullocks during the race. Police said that the men gathered in large numbers at the spot to see the race defying the orders of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) preventing the gathering of people in the wake of Covid infection. Gujarwadi-Nimbalkarwadi villages were recently merged in the PMC limits.
Police registered the case under the provisions of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and also invoked sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 269 (whoever unlawfully or negligently does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life), 270 (whoever malignantly does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 149 (common object) of The Indian Penal Code.