NewsKarnataka-Mangalore
Mangalore:The Suratkal police have managed to arrest three inter-district cattle thieves at Jokatte on September 24, Tuesday. The arrests were made two days after irate locals protested in front of Suratkal police station, against police inaction in cattle theft cases.
The arrested are Sarfaraz alias Choppu (25), Nissar (22) and Sheik alias Ummar Farooq (27). The trio were also wanted in connection with thefts at Sakleshpur, Hassan, Chikmagalur and Malnad regions. During interrogations, the trio, it is learnt, have admitted that they had stolen cattle from the houses of Baby in Krishnapur and Diwaker Shetty in Kuttettur.
It is learnt, they were into cattle theft since two years ago. Interrogations also revealed that there were ten groups, each having four to five members and the arrested three were members of one such groups.
They used to have a Scorpio vehicle in which they moved around and then stole cattle found on the way and also from cattle sheds. They were also clever in shifting the cattle to slaughter houses by 9 am, to be eventually butchered.
The accused also revealed that they used to smuggle six to seven cattle at a time and each of them used to get anywhere ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 6000.
They have reportedly supplied 4000 stolen cows to slaughter houses in three years. There is also information that the accused have revealed that they had political backing.
The arrests were made by Suratkal Inspector MA Natarajan and his team. The accused have been produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody till October 3.