Two cow vigilantes, including an Indian-origin British citizen Sonia Sharma and her female friend Archie Baranwal, were allegedly attacked by cattle smugglers in Sohna area near Gurgaon in Haryana in the wee hours of 25 September.
The incident took place on Sohna Road when Sonia and Archie were “test-driving” their vehicle on Sohna-Gurgaon highway at 2 a.m. when they claimed to have spotted a pick-up truck carrying cattle. “The animals were tied and were clearly stuffed into the small vehicle.
Surprisingly, there were no rear tyres in the vehicle and yet it was speeding towards Mewat from Gurgaon on just the rims.The people in pick-up van shot at us and 3 or 4 person sitting on the roof of the van threw a live cow at us while we were following them,” Sonia alleged.
“While chasing the van on our way we saw a police patrol vehicle. We stooped and told them about the van carrying cows. The police patrol didn’t respond, so we continued our chase.
We even asked our friends to call cops and tell them about the van so that the smugglers could be nabbed. We somehow overtook the van and tried to find a police patrol car or any police station, but on our way after sometime we received a call from one of my friends that the police had caught the vehicle and that cattle smugglers had fled away from the scene,” Archie charged.
The police recovered two animals from the road and four others from inside the truck in critical condition. The weapon allegedly used in firing at women ~ which missed them ~ too has been recovered, police claimed. The cows were sent to nearby gaushala.
According to sources, the police recovered six cows out of which three died on Tuesday. Two cases has been filed in this regard in the Sohna city police station.
An FIR was filed by Rohit of Damdama village, also a gau rakshak (cow vigilante), who claimed that he had informed police about the vehicle carrying cows. Another FIR was filed by Sonia Sharma against seven men in this matter.
The accused have been booked under the Arms Act for possession of illegal firearm and the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamwardhan Act. “We are investigating the matter,” said a police official. None of the accused has been arrested so far.