The police have picked up three PFA members on a complaint for assault and robbery. The PFA says it was a case of smuggling of livestock, which they were trying to stop.

The complainant is Mohammed Ishaq, a transporter.

Around 2.30 am, he and a couple of cousins, he said, were moving through Chanakyapuri, when a group of 18 to 20 bikers stopped his Maruti 800.

“The youths were armed with sticks. They kept mentioning the name People For Animals,” he told Newsline. “We had just got some of our trucks filled at a petrol station. Maybe someone had tipped them off. They demanded money from us. We tried to resist, but they roughed us up and robbed us of Rs 5000.”

He made a call to the PCR, following which the police arrived and managed to catch three of the bikers. A complaint was registered and the police claimed to have caught the bikers with “incriminating evidence” -their PFA identity cards.The NGO has its own version.

According to it, the police are in league with the transporter, who is an old hand at livestock smuggling in Delhi.

Maneka Gandhi defended the youths.

“For three years, the PFA has been conducting these raids,” she said. The animals are smuggled into Delhi illegally at night.

The High Court is informed about the matter. “The police are in league with the complainant. In fact, they were escorting a truck carrying around 300 goats. Our members were detained for trying to stop the truck,” she said.

According to Gandhi, no more than 40 goats can be transported at a time. The PFA is now threatening to take the matter to court.