Two people, including the brother of a Shiv Sena leader, have been arrested by Navi Mumbai police for transporting over 40 kgs of beef.
The police were acting on a tip-off about some people bringing cow meat from Karjat to be sold in Navi Mumbai. The police laid a trap and arrested two individuals who were carrying 40 kgs of beef in a rickshaw for sale.
During the police interrogation, both the accused admitted to bringing beef to Navi Mumbai for sale without having any official license. The police also learned that one of the arrested persons in the case is the brother of a Shiv Sena sub-divisional chief from Khairane village in Navi Mumbai. Both the accused have been remanded to police custody for two days.
The BJP government in Maharashtra had banned the slaughter and consumption of the meat of bull and bullock in March 2015. As per the legislation, violators get a jail term of five years and/or a fine of Rs 10,000. Cow slaughter was already banned under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976.
However, since then smuggling of beef into Maharashtra has steadily grown. Just recently, in September 2021, close to 100 tonnes of illegal beef and buffalo meat was recovered from two places in Gulbarga after a Mumbai-based NGO filed a complaint to the Karnataka state authorities about illegal cattle slaughters taking place along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border, and the illegal beef and buffalo meat being smuggled into Mumbai and Navi Mumbai areas by road.