PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has refused to quash a criminal case against two government and madrassa teachers, allegedly from whose possession cow meat (beef) and 16 live cattle were recovered.
Dismissing the petition filed by one Parvez Ahmed and three others, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal observed, “In the present case, the applicants had tried to set up defence by bringing on record the report of the forensic science laboratory (FSL), but the first information report (FIR) not only discloses the recovery of cow meat but also 16 live cattle stocks along with other incriminating material. The defence so raised by the applicants will be considered by the trial court and such defence set up in the present application cannot be considered by this court at this stage of quashing of the charge sheet.”
The petitioners had challenged the criminal case pending against them before chief judicial magistrate (CJM), Mau. The court said that as per the FIR, a prima facie cognizable offence is made out against the applicants and thus, no case was made out to quash the case against them.
Applicant number one, Parvez Ahmed, was an assistant teacher in the education department of the state, while second applicant was working as assistant teacher in Madrasa Darul Ulum Gausia, Kasba Salempur. The third was running a medical shop and fourth one was doing some other work.
The petitioners’ plea was that a report from the FIL received did not disclose that the sample sent for analysis was of cow. Therefore, no case under the Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act was made out.
On the other hand, the state counsel argued that the FIR categorically mentioned that out of 16 live cattle stock recovered from the petitioners, included seven buffaloes, one cow, two female buffalo calf, five male buffalo calf and one male cow calf.
Thus, it was argued by the state that it was wrong to say that the FSL report gave a clean chit to the applicants, as 16 cattle were found in the possession of the applicants and other co-accused and they were not having any licence to run a slaughterhouse. The court after hearing concerned parties, in its order dated July 4 said that even though the FSL report had revealed that the sample which was sent for chemical analysis was not cow meat, 16 live cattle were also recovered from the the applicants and other co-accused.
