Don’t show heroism: Ramanagara police warn cow vigilantes

The district police chief addressed a press conference to announce the arrest of self-proclaimed cow vigilante Puneeth Kerehalli and 4 of his men

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Ramanagara police on Wednesday warned cow vigilantes against taking the law into their own hands.

“If anyone has information about illegal activity, they should call the police control room or the local police. We will take the necessary action. Nobody should show heroism. We will act against those taking the law into their hands,” Karthik Reddy said.

The district police chief addressed a press conference to announce the arrest of self-proclaimed cow vigilante Puneeth Kerehalli and four of his men.

The five were booked for murder after they stopped and attacked three men transporting cattle in a container truck from Mandya to Tamil Nadu at Sathanur, about 60 km southwest of Bengaluru, around 11.40 pm on March 31.

One of the three men, Idrees Pasha, 39, was found dead around 8.30 am on April 1.

Meanwhile, the autopsy report on Pasha has been delayed.

Quoting doctors who did the post-mortem, a police officer claimed there were no visible injuries to Pasha’s body. Doctors orally told the police that Pasha might have died of a cardiac arrest. They will furnish the autopsy report only after the visceral report is ready, the officer said. “We will not publicly comment on the cause of death until then,” the officer added.

Besides the murder case, police registered two other FIRs over the incident. The first was filed by Kerehalli himself around 1 am on April 1, accusing Pasha and two others of cow slaughter and illegal cattle transport.

Police are also examining the history of Rashtra Rakshana Pade, an obscure organisation founded by Kerehalli, and looking into its financial transactions, an officer said.

Reddy denied that police had deleted videos from Kerehalli’s Facebook account. “Kerehalli himself deactivated the account and deleted the videos,” he said.

He also dismissed Kerehalli’s allegations that police tampered with the FIR due to political pressure. “Nobody can tamper with the FIR once it is registered,” Reddy said.