Allahabad HC frees three detained under NSA for slaughtering cow

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court yesterday pronounced the detention of three people who have been accused of slaughtering a cow under the National Security Act invalid, citing slaughtering a cow in the secrecy of one's house does not involve public disruption of order which alone could be counted as a law and order issue.

Ordering the release of Irfan, Rahmatullah and Parvez, the court observed the lack of evidence to reach a conclusion that the accused would commit the crime again in the future. The court was hearing the habeas corpus petitions filed by families of the three accused.

The High Court was of the opinion that the slaughtering of a cow in the wee hours in the secrecy of one's own house could have been the result of poverty, hunger and lack of employment that did not weigh as slaughtering a number of cattle in the public view and transporting its flesh and nor did involve a case of attacking complaining public by slaughterers but the said case was infractions of public order.

The three were arrested last year and have been slapped by the NSA on them on August 14 when they were lodged in UP's before being booked under different sections of the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 and Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013. The prosecution told the court that the accused have also been booked UP Gangsters Act and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986.

Talgaon police arrested Irfan, Rahmatullah and Parvez on a tip-off that the accused were in the act of cutting beef to sell it. In the FIR, the police said that the accused were caught with beef.