Purulia police have arrested seven people, including the alleged kingpin of an interstate cattle-smuggling racket, after residents shared video footage showing cattle being taken from roads and transported in small passenger vehicles across parts of the district, according to the Purulia district police.
The police said six of those arrested are residents of the Kapali outpost area under Chandil police station in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district. The seventh accused, identified as Mohammed Anwar, is from Kasai Mohalla in Purulia town and allegedly acted as a linkman for the group.
The alleged kingpin has been identified as Mohammed Kabir Hussain. The other arrested people are Nazrul Mir, Sheikh Shoaib, Shahnaz Khan, Sheikh Mohammed Wasim Akram and Moin Ansari. Police said the arrests were made in stages, with the alleged kingpin arrested on Tuesday and the linkman taken into custody on Wednesday night, bringing the total number of arrests to seven.
Police have seized six vehicles and six cattle in the operation. Four of the vehicles did not have registration number plates, while the numbers displayed on the remaining two were allegedly false. Their chassis numbers have been sent to the respective vehicle manufacturers for verification, police said.
Purulia Superintendent of Police Kumar Shani Raj said the investigation began after residents handed over video footage to the police. “We achieved this success after receiving videos from villagers. Seven people, including the kingpin, have been arrested. Six vehicles and cattle have been seized and the investigation is continuing,” he said, according to the report.
The police said the group had allegedly been operating for about a month in parts of Purulia close to the Jharkhand border. The locations mentioned in the investigation include Barabazar, Balarampur, Jhalda, Arsha, Kashipur and the railway town of Adra.
According to the police account, the group allegedly removed the rear seats of vehicles such as Innovas, Scorpios and Boleros and used them to lift cattle from roads. The report also said that cattle were sometimes allegedly taken from homes. The use of small vehicles, rather than trucks or tractors, formed part of the group’s reported operating method.
An incident in Baliya under Arsha police station had earlier drawn police attention when a sub-inspector allegedly chased members of the group while they were attempting to take cattle from a road. The police report said a confrontation followed, after which surveillance continued across the district.
The operation was conducted under the supervision of Additional Superintendent of Police (Operations) Bidyagar Anjika Anant. The Special Operation Group, led by officer-in-charge Sub-Inspector Jayanta Chakraborty, was involved in the investigation and arrests. Police said the case remains under investigation, including verification of the seized vehicles and the wider network allegedly connected to the racket.
