In the name of the 'holy cow': Here's a look at the action taken against gau rakshaks

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi came down heavily on cow vigilantes on Saturday, Punjab police on Sunday filed an FIR against Gau Raksha Dal chief Satish Kumar, reported The Tribune.

#FLASH Patiala Police lodged an FIR against Gau Raksha Dal Chief Satish Kumar (in matter of a social media video), confirms SSP (Patiala)

— ANI (@ANI) August 8, 2016

Satish Kumar was booked in connection with a video, which was doing the rounds on social media, showing organisation members thrashing people in the name of ‘cow protection’, reported The Indian Express. Kumar is yet to be arrested. A case under Sections 382 (having made preparation for causing death), 384 (committing extortion), 341 (wrongfully restraining any person), including Sections 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code was registered, police said. Punjab DGP Suresh Arora was quoted by The Tribune as saying that nobody will be allowed to carry unlawful activities under the pretext of being gau rakshaks and that they have registered a couple of cases. The report added that self-styled cow protection groups were harassing truck operators by dragging them out of their vehicles and beating them up with rods and sticks, apart from torching their trucks. [caption id=“attachment_2938752” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] Kumar has reportedly boasted of saving more than 2.5 lakh cows and registering over 2,000 FIRs against “cow butchers”. Modi’s silence was broken after the Dalit community in Gujarat protested against the brutal assault on youngsters in Una for skinning a cow carcass. According to The Indian Express, 31 gau rakshaks have been taken into custody in Gujarat following the incident. A case was registered under IPC Section 153 A against Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh for his remarks defending the attacks on Dalits in Una. Section 153 A concerns promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony. On 26 July, 2016, in Mandsaur, after two Muslim women were beaten up on the suspicion of carrying beef, which later turned out to be calf meat, the suspects were arrested under S ections 341, 323 and 34  of the IPC, which pertain to punishment for wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention respectively. On 10 June, 2016, after 30-40 members of Bajrang Dal brutally attacked a Dalit family in Koppa, Karnataka, for allegedly possessing beef, local police filed a case against the attackers under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015. This was after Dalit rights groups insisted that action be taken against the Bajrang Dal members. In another incident in June this year, Gau Raksha Dal volunteers, who force-fed two beef transporters a concoction of cow dung, urine and milk, were booked under Section 295 A of the IPC for intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. Mustain Abbas, a 27-year-old father of four, who was travelling back home after buying bulls from Haryana was allegedly fired upon by Gau Raksha Dal members. No arrests have been made so far in the case and the CBI, on 9 May, ordered a probe into his murder. In March this year, after two Muslim cattle traders were found hanged to death in Jharkhand, five people were arrested under the charge of murder , while the police suspect it to be connected with cattle loot. At Khirkiya railway station in the Harda district of Madhya Pradesh, a Muslim couple, were attacked by a cow protection group over allegations that they were carrying beef. The police have registered a case against two Gau Raksha Samiti activists for voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation, and arrested them. Last year, over rumours that his family had been storing and consuming beef, Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, by a right-wing Hindu mob. On 15 July, 2016, the police lodged an FIR against the deceased Mohammad Akhlaq and six family members under the cow slaughter act. A total of 19 persons were accused in the case. Of these, one was given a clean chit by police and let off. Sixteen accused are still lodged in jail. Immediately after the attack, Dadri police named 10 people as accused, with over a hundred unnamed assailants. Police registered FIR under IPC section 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 458 (house-trespass or house-breaking) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace). Teenager Zahid Rasool Bhat died in an arson attack at Udhampur in October 2015 after he was found to be travelling in a truck that was transporting cattle. In another unrelated incident in October 2015, a 20-year-old from Saharanpur was allegedly killed by villagers who believed he was involved in cattle smuggling. The police then filed a case under Section 302 of the IPC against unknown persons. A  Gau Sewa Commission was set up in January 2015 in Punjab, where deputy commissioners’ offices issue No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for permits to transport cattle. Earlier, only one document from the Animal Husbandry Department was enough. The three-step process has reportedly hurt businesses according to traders, and has meanwhile allowed gau rakshaks to thrive. Mukul Kesavan argues that the “root of the problem” is the commission.

The commission made a no-objection certificate from a deputy commissioner mandatory for those wishing to transport cattle, another layer of sarkari paper that has proved remarkably hard to get. Not only does this lead, inevitably, to bribery and rent-seeking, it creates a circumstance where Gau Raksha Dals and Shiv Sainiks prey on trucks and force cattle traders to pay them off. These vigilantes are now confident enough to charge trucker unions nearly four lakhs for a licence that allows their trucks free passage for six months. 

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Taking a leaf out of Punjab government’s book, the Haryana Gau Sewa Ayog has sent a proposal to the Haryana government to impose a five percent 'cow cess' on movie tickets and an extra fee, while booking banquet halls for functions. The commission also proposed the idea of levying Re 1 on each bag of wheat, paddy and other crops bought from the state market. Further, the Manohar Lal Khattar government is also thinking of constituting a ‘Gau Rakshak Task Force’ on the pattern of Home Guards to ensure strict enforcement of the stringent cow protection law in the state.