By Tribune News ServiceFollow on Twitter

A day after a suspected ‘beef mandi’ was busted on the Haryana-Rajasthan border in Tijara district of Rajasthan, the government has decided upon ‘bulldozer justice’ for cattle smugglers. Authorities have started pulling down ‘illegal’ houses and flattening fields in cow-smuggling hot spots like Kishangarh Bas, a village bordering Ferozpur Jhirka in Nuh. They also disconnected power supply to the house of an accused, who was found uprooting electricity poles nearby. An alert has been issued to the Nuh police regarding 20 active cow smugglers and 12 hotspots in the area.

According to a letter shot to officials in Haryana, the Rajasthan government authorities highlighted how interrogation of several suspects revealed a nexus of cattle smugglers in Haryana villages, including Tapakan, Ghasera, Chahalka, Ghagas, Kansali, Mewli, Malaka, Cheela and Pachgaon.

While Nuh SP Narender Bijarnia remained unavailable for comments owing to the farmer situation in Jind, a senior official said, “We already have a strict monitoring mechanism against cow smuggling and slaughter. We man the Aravalis hills through drones and as a result, mandis are not held here anymore. A majority of offenders are from Rajasthan areas like Deeg and Alwar. We will go through all inputs and bring the accused to book.”

Rajasthan environment minister Sanjay Sharma alleged that the previous government allowed beef business, but they would certainly not tolerate any such act. He himself oversaw the ‘bulldozer’ action on properties of suspects caught in a raid at the illegal market set up in the Rundh Gidwada forest, near Kishanpur Bas village. Not only was cattle meat being sold in the open, online delivery services were also offered across the NCR. Collected samples of the meat have been sent for testing.

Meanwhile, four cops were suspended while other staff members of the Kishangarh Bas Police Station were sent to the police lines for not taking appropriate action.

This story was originally published in tribuneindia.com.