Ensure cow vigilantes don't misuse beef law, police in Maharashtra told after Modi directive
Maharashtra top cop Satish Mathur has instructed his immediate subordinates to make sure that self-styled cow vigilantes do not miss use the state's beef law that bans the slaughter of cow for beef.
In Short
- Don't let cow vigilantes misuse beef law, Maharashtra DGP tells police officers.
- Directive issued keeping PM Modi's instructions in mind, DGP says.
- Modi had asked states to prevent violence in the name of cow protection.
Maharashtra has asked its police officers to take steps to ensure that self-styled cow vigilantes do not misuse a state law that bans the slaughter of cow for beef.
The directive, issued by Maharashtra Director General of Police Satish Mathur, are in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent comments in which he asked states to prevent violence being carried out in the name of cow protection, Mathur said.
Maharashtra is among the states that has seen violence by so-called gau rakshaks or cow vigilantes who target people suspected of carrying beef/transporting cattle for slaughter. A recent India Today investigation had even uncovered a gang of these self-styled cow vigilantes who used Maharashtra's beef law to essentially demand 'protection money' from meat traders.
Maharashtra DGP Satish Mathur spoke to his immediate subordinates over a two-day video conference during which he instructed them to ensure that the beef law is not misused in the state. "The message was conveyed to the inspector generals of Maharashtra Police in the two-day long video conferencing. The instructions have been passed in the line of directive issued by the Prime Minister," Mathur told India Today.
Maharashtra Police has become the first police force in the country to pass such specific instruction on the controversial issue of cow vigilantism, which has especially blown up following several cases of lynching in which people suspected to be carrying beefed were beaten to death.
LAW AND ORDER NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY, CENTRE SAYS
Meanwhile, in an unconnected development, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre today told the Supreme Court that it "doesn't support violence in the name of gau raksha."
At the same time, the Centre sought to wash its hands off the matter and shifted the burden on to the states, telling the apex court that law and order was a state subject.
A number of states have been made respondents in the matter but have not filed their response. So the court adjourned the matter, giving them four weeks to do so.
The Supreme Court was hearing a plea by Pune-based activist Tehseen S Poonawala seeking action against so-called gau rakshaks.
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