Punjab police arrest Gau Raksha Dal chief Satish Kumar on assault, sodomy charges

Chandigarh: Gau Raksha Dal chief Satish Kumar was arrested from Vrindavan after being booked on charges of sodomy, rioting and extortion among others. SSP Gurmeet Chauhan on Sunday confirmed his arrest but did not provide any details. Police sources said he was arrested on Saturday night from Vrindavan where he was hiding after he was booked on charges of abduction with intent to hurt, wrongful confinement and other sections of the IPC a fortnight earlier. [caption id=“attachment_2864224” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The case was lodged on 6 August two years after a video went viral showing Gau Raksha Dal members brutally thrashing people. Satish was also booked under Section 377 of the IPC which criminalises unnatural sex after a youth from Saharanpur alleged that he was abducted and sodomised by Satish’s goons. “Now another Uttar Pradesh resident has told investigators that he was sodomised by Satish,” the sources said. The victim from Saharanpur had told a judicial magistrate that Satish, Bablu and 10-15 others had forcibly taken him to a cow shelter in Rajpura where he was sodomised. “Also, some goons had urinated in my mouth,” he alleged. Another victim had told the police last week that he was detained by the self-styled cow vigilantes, robbed and tortured. He also alleged that he was sodomised by Satish. The Gau Raksha Dal allegedly used to post videos online of attacks on trucks “carrying cattle for slaughter”, showing drivers being thrashed and vehicles torched. Meanwhile, a court in Rajpura on Sunday remanded Kumar to one-day police custody. However, Kumar denied the charges levelled by police against him.