The Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh police chief to ensure that “fair investigation” is carried out in cases related to cow slaughter after the investigation officer (IO) in a case of alleged cow slaughter sent a sample of cow dung for forensic analysis.
A forensic laboratory in Lucknow returned the cow dung sample with a report saying that it was not meant for examining cow dung. No other evidence was recovered from the accused.
The High Court was hearing the matter of a Muslim man from Sitapur, Nizamuddin, who had approached it to seek anticipatory bail in a case of alleged cow slaughter. The court granted him relief but also expressed concern over the misuse of the anti-cow slaughter law in Uttar Pradesh.
Along with three others, Nizamuddin was in August 2022 booked under the sections 3, 5 and 8 of the stringent Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act. The FIR was lodged at Reusa Police Station on the complaint of the village watchman who alleged that a calf had been slaughtered in the sugarcane field of another Muslim man named Jamil. The watchman claimed he recovered a rope and semi-digested gobar —cow dung— when he arrived at the scene. Some villagers allegedly also saw the accused carrying a calf towards the field, he noted in his complaint. The accused, however, pleaded innocence.
After hearing both sides, Justice Mohd. Faiz Alam Khan in an order dated March 28 observed that it was evident that neither any prohibited animal nor any flesh was recovered in the case. The court noted that the investigating officer in the case had collected remains of cow dung from the spot and sent the same to a forensic laboratory for analysis. The cow dung was returned by the lab with the argument that it was not meant to analyse the cow dung.
The FIR was lodged and the charge sheet was filed simply on the basis of “apprehension and suspicion”, said Khan, terming the case a “glaring example of misuse of penal law”.
While granting relief to Nizamuddin, Khan instructed UP Director General of Police to take necessary action “in order to remind the investigating officers of their duty to ensure fair investigation in all the criminal cases in general and in the cases pertaining to cow slaughter in particular”.
Khan further said that keeping cows and calf as pet animals was a common practice in the villages irrespective of caste, creed, and religion. The duty of the State is to “ensure fair investigation which in the considered opinion of this Court has not been done in the instant case”, noted Khan.
