Maharashtra speaker asks police to protect cow vigilantes

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on Tuesday said he has asked the state police to maintain strict vigil and seal borders to ensure there is no transportation of cattle from neighbouring states and also no attack on gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes).

The speaker also said he has asked the police to set up squads to visit and patrol sensitive areas.

Narwekar said he had a meeting with the additional director general of police (law and order) and Nanded's superintendent of police over the ”fear” among institutions and NGOs that there could be ”mass gau-vansh hatya” (bovine killing) during the upcoming Bakr-Eid.

”So, precautionary measures should be taken also with regards to the violence that had erupted in Nanded and other places," he said.

"We have asked them (police) to maintain strict vigilance and set up squads to visit and patrol sensitive areas, seal the borders to not allow any flow of cattle between states and also to ensure there is no attack on these gau-rakshaks,”the said. 

Notably, a 32-year-old man was lynched allegedly a group of 'cow vigilantes' on suspicion of transporting beef in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Saturday.

This was the second incident in Nashik in nearly two weeks of killing of a person by 'cow vigilantes'.

Last week, a 32-year-old 'cow vigilante' was killed in an attack in Nanded after he and his friends sought to intercept a vehicle on suspicion that it was smuggling cattle, the police said.

Narwekar said the state is doing its bit to control everything and this is not happening for the first time.

”It has been happening and we want to ensure this time it is controlled totally. It was a pre-emptive meeting, precautionary meeting that was taken,” he said.

On Monday, the Congress slammed the Eknath Shinde government over the incident in Nashik on Saturday and asked if the rule of law existed in the state.