Cow vigilantism: Five Bajrang Dal members arrested in Odisha capital

Bhubaneswar: Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested five more persons accused in the assault on Railway and dairy farm staff over alleged illegal cattle trafficking last month, police said today.

One of the prime accused Arya Kumar Pradhan was arrested last night based on CCTV footage. He is a resident of Barik Sahi under Rameswar Patna in Old Town area in the city. Today, four more accused – Bhupesh Kumar Nayak from Nageswar Tangi, Deepak Kumar Jena from Laxmisagar, Rajesh Kumar Prusty from Mahatab Road in Old Town and Bibek Kumar Swain from Gautam Nagar – were arrested. However, these five persons bailed out as they had already obtained anticipatory bail from Orissa High Court, GRP IIC Soubhagya Kumar Swain said.

Police are raiding several places to nab others involved in the incident, he added.

Worth mentioning, three accused persons were arrested and forwarded to court earlier. They are – Sudarshan Biswal, Sibananda Panda and Ganesh Prasad Sahoo, a city-based hotelier.

Notably, a cow vigilante group assaulted railway employees and employees of Vertex Agritech Pvt Ltd at city railway station here last month over suspected illegal cattle trafficking. The employees were transporting milch cows from Salem to Guwahati on Kochuvelli Guwahati Express when the activists raided the train and deboarded the bovines.

The accused were part of the mob which roughed them up.

Following the incident, GRP registered a case under section 143, 332, 353, 147 of IPC and 174 (a) of Railways Act.