FIR for selling ‘beef biryani’: Mewat leaders take move with a pinch of salt

Mewat leaders took the filing of FIR in beef biryani case with a pinch of salt, while members of right wing outfits welcomed the move as a right step for cow protection.

Local leaders in Mewat termed the case as a malicious move to malign residents and suspected the intention of the government behind collecting biryani samples in August last year.

“This government is trying to create a divide in the society. The very manner of sample collection and testing is suspicious. The state government often changed stand in the matter and did not take any action after testing was done. The action seems a ploy to sully the image of the area and its residents”, said Aftab Ahmed, Haryana Congress vice president. Ahmed is former MLA from Nuh and was a minister in the previous Congress government.

The police filed an FIR on Saturday at Ferozepur Jhirka police station against seven people on the orders of the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate. The seven accused have been booked under the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gau Samvardhan Act 2015, three sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and seven sections of the Indian Penal Code.

On August 24, 2016, officials of the animal husbandry department and the police collected seven samples of biryani from vendors at Mundaka village of Mewat. The samples tested at a lab in Hisar were found containing “meat of cattle species”.

“Cow slaughter should not happen if it hurts religious sentiments. But the samples were collected just to terrorise people who sold biryani on roadsides. It needs to be probed at the highest level. Spreading terror through the police is not acceptable,” Zakir Hussain, MLA from Nuh, said.

Read I Haryana govt collects biryani samples from Mewat, sends to lab to detect beef

Hussain said in 1935, his grandfather Chaudhary Mohd Yasin Khan had censured cow slaughter at a mahapanchayat held in Nagina.

“Government should focus on development, instead of focussing on what people should wear and eat,” Ramzan Chaudhary, advocate and president of All India Mewati Samaj, said.

Bhani Ram Mangla, chairman of Haryana Gau Seva Aayog (cow service commission), said the case has been registered through a court order and there is no malice towards anyone. Regarding delay of action from government side, Mangla said, “The matter is in the court and we have been waiting for it to resolve to take further action”.

Ramesh Yadava, former state convenor of VHP’s Gau Samvardhan cell, said that the case is a right step for protection of cows. Yadava is presently chairman of Haryana Kisan Ayog.