The Times of India, October 17, 1999
Criminals, police nexus in mewat
By M L Kapur
The Times of India News Service
FARIDABAD: Cow slaughter in the backward Mewat belt is a Rs 5 crore-a month business which is controlled by a handful of Qureshi clan professional butcher-criminals in connivance with the Haryana and Delhi police.
According to well informed sources, on an average 10,000 cows are slaughtered in the submountaneous villages in the Aravalli foothills of Haryana bordering Rajasthan, allegedly under police protection.
The beef so produced is supplied to traders in Lawrence Road and Jheel Khureji areas of Delhi, which, sources assert, caters to the entire requirement of the National Capital Territory and parts of western UP.
The economics of the trade is so lucrative that those engaged in this activity, on being arrested or even convicted, again take to it after easily securing bail or serving a six- month term, the maximum under the Cow Slaughter (Prevention) Act.
According to estimates, a living cow, once it stops yielding milk, can be procured for Rs 200. After being butchered, its hide sells for Rs 800 and beef, at Rs 20 a kg for an average 100 kg per cow, for Rs 2,000.
After accounting for transportation, protection money and other expenses, the unlawful activity of cow slaughter yields a net profit of Rs two crore a month to the butcher-criminals of Mewat areas of Faridabad and Gurgaon.
Sources say that an equal amount of Rs two crore per month is earned by the Delhi-based meat traders and retailers down the line, and at least Rs one crore a month is pocketed by the police as protection money.
Jungles of Maluka, Sirali, Jharana, Beshirpur, Khanpur and Gudavali villages in Mewat are strewn with thousands of skulls of cows slaughtered over a period of time.
Those engaged in this nefarious activity are mostly related to policemen of the area, many of whom have not been transferred for years, for reasons best known to the district police chief.
It is common knowledge in the Mewat area that vehicles of only those cattle and beef smugglers are checked who do not pay ``monthly'' to the policemen posted on the route taken by them on way to their destination in Delhi.
Such checkings have resulted in a number of armed encounters between police and smugglers, most frequently at Dhoj police post on Sohna road, leading to deaths or injuries for both the parties, and seizure of cattle and beef-laden vehicles.
The cows are believed to be procured from Rewari, Narnaul, Bhiwani, Sirsa and Hissar in Haryana and Jhunjhunu, Swami Madhopur and Alwar districts of Rajasthan.
The incoming trucks loaded with cattle and the outgoing ones loaded with beef, move in convoys of three to four vehicles, with jeeps in front and at the rear. Men equipped with cellphones in the jeeps coordinate ``safe movement'' of convoys at ``sensitive points''.
Meat traders in the Capital are informed in advance about the movement of beef-laden trucks from Mewat to Delhi. The police barriers on the way pose no problems as these vehicles are rarely checked.
Once the beef-laden trucks reach Badarpur border, Delhi police personnel deployed at the checkpost there reportedly escort these vehicles to their destination. Their movement is restricted to night only.
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