Two arrested for selling meat during seven-day ban, manhandling cops

MUMBAI: The Bandra police on Wednesday arrested two persons, including the owner of a mutton shop, for selling meat during the seven-day ban imposed on account of Paryushan Parv. They also allegedly assaulted the police officers when they went to seize the goats from his shop.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has banned culling animals and selling meat in the city from August 30 to September 7, as demanded by the Jain community.
According to Ravindra Divekar, an officer from the BMC market department, around 8 am on Wednesday, he received information that a slaughterhouse was functioning near Lucky Restaurant in Bandra West.
Divekar informed the police and reached the spot along with constables Bharat Nangre, Pratik Kadam, Pravin Nachnekar, and Sankay Kalay. When the officers saw a few goats at the mutton shop, they went in to seize the animals. When shop owners Faiyyaz Kothmire and Huzaifa Arif Shaikh refused to hand over the goats, the two men intercepted the officers and manhandled them.
The police constable arrested the two men for preventing a government official to do his duty under section 132 and common intention under section 3 (5) of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The Bombay high court directed the civic bodies in the state to urgently consider and decide a Jain trust’s plea seeking a temporary ban on animal slaughter and sale of meat during the Paryushan festival, the Deonar abattoir, run by the civic body, to be shut for two days while other shops and slaughterhouses will be shut for seven days.
“We have arrested the accused and produced them before the court on Thursday,” said a police officer from Bandra police station