4 cattle smugglers held for theft, slaughter of cows

Four persons were arrested Monday in Ghaziabad's Awas Vikas colony for allegedly stealing cows and slaughtering them, police said.

On the basis of a tip-off, Tronica city police arrested the smugglers from a forest near the colony and recovered from their possession lethal weapons used for slaughtering, police said.

The arrested accused -- Rizwan, Firoz, Anees, and Mustkeem-- have confessed to stealing cows and calves for slaughtering after administering euthanasia injections to them, Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna said.

They were wanted in five cases of theft of bovines and their slaughter, he said.

Three extra-large size knives, five syringes and 14 injections, and a four-metre-long synthetic rope were recovered from the accused, the SSP said, adding that they have been sent to jail under sections of the anti-cow slaughter Act.