10 cops suspended in UP for trying to ‘cover up’ beef smuggling case
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Noida: A top police official in Uttar Pradesh said that ten policemen were suspended on Wednesday for attempting to cover up a beef smuggling case in Moradabad district.
The action against officials, according to Satpal Antil, Senior Superintendent of Police (Moradabad), came after an internal probe found that they had buried the meat and hid the car to cover up the incident.
Officials suspended include SHO (Pakbada) Manoj Kumar, Chowki in-charge Anil Kumar, sub-inspectors Mahavir Singh and Taslim alongside head constables Bansat Kumar and Dhirendra Kasana, constables Mohit, Manish, and Rahul, and constable driver Sonu Saini.
The Moradabad Police said that officials were charged with gross negligence, arbitrariness, and inaction towards their duties and suspended under the provisions of Rule 17(1)(A) of the UP Subordinate Police Officers (punishment and appeal) Rules, 1991.
The Senior Superintendent of Police reportedly said that ‘On Tuesday afternoon, we received information that no action was taken by police after they intercepted a vehicle carrying beef under the limits of the Pakbara Police station in Moradabad. By seeing the seriousness of the issue and in consideration of the prior directions, we formed a Special Operations Group (SOG) team to examine the issue.’
The officer added citing the probe that the accused police personnel ‘failed to take appropriate action in the matter and instead tried to suppress it’.
A police team of UP-112 recovered ‘large quantities’ of beef in a ‘suspicious’ Honda City car that they intercepted in the Umri Sabjipur forest area under Pakbada police station limits, according to officials.
Rather than taking action, the policemen dug a pit to bury the meat and hid the car, according to SHO of Pakbada, Satender Singh who took over the charge on Wednesday.
The SHO said ‘We have registered an FIR against unidentified men under the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act. The men have been identified, but we will not be revealing the information.’