The Uttar Pradesh police are busy hunting for the past two days — for three buffaloes. These are among the 22 which were “rescued” by animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi from alleged illegal slaughter and distributed to villagers. The Pilibhit MP now faces a criminal case in the matter.

The buffaloes had been distributed by Maneka to residents in 10-12 villages of Pilibhit after she intercepted two matadors carrying them on Friday evening. After the owner of the cattle lodged a police complaint in Bisalpur on Saturday accusing her of stealing his animals, many of these villagers themselves came forward to return them.

Maneka claims to have freed the animals, being taken for “illegal slaughter”, in the presence of police officers. She says as many as 40, tightly packed, cattle heads were being transported on these matadors. Owner Shabbir Ahmed, a cattle trader from Saithal in Bareilly has, however, said in his complaint that there were 22 in all (18 male and four females).

Ahmed says he had bought the cattle from a village market in Lakhimpur Kheri for his own use and not for slaughter. He also claims that Rs 5,000 cash was looted from the matadors.

According to Maneka, she was returning from her parliamentary constituency in Pilibhit on Friday evening when she passed the two matadors on Bareilly road.

She says she called the local police, a huge crowd gathered and since “there was no space to keep the cattle”, she distributed it to villagers from nearby areas. She adds that the empty matadors and drivers were handed over to the police.

... contd.