A new kind of cattle theft now plagues Ahmedabad. The Maldhari (herdsmen) community is having sleepless nights these days, thanks to an organised gang, which has been stealing and on some occasions forcefully snatching away their tethered cows in the night by threatening them with swords.

Alarmed by the increasing number of such incidents, a youth organisation of Maldharis, Maldhari Jan Andolan (MJA), has represented the issue before the police commissioner in writing, seeking his intervention in the matter to help the community in securing its livestock. The association says that though they have tried to file a police complaint, they have not received much co-operation from the authorities.

According to the Maldharis, the gang has been operating in the city for the last two years. “Usually, around 5-10 armed people come in cars like Tata Sumo or Tata Safari late in the night and take away the cows. If somebody wakes up and raises an objection, the gang uses force,” said Ramesh Desai, a resident of Memnagar and a member of MJA. He added: “The gang is

active in areas that have a Maldhari population.”

Magan Rabari from Shivam Row House in Chandkheda, reportedly lost his two cows last month when the members of the said gang snatched the animals away brandishing swords.

“They came in a Tata Sumo and took away the cows. Around 3-4 of them were holding swords and I was too scared to oppose them. Both the cows had delivered calves a few days ago, that eventually died in the absence of their mothers,” Rabari said.

Amrat Bhangda from Rajivnagar locality near Satellite area told Newsline: “This problem has been persisting for the last two years. Many of us have lost our cows to this gang and since they are armed and more in numbers, we cannot do anything except for being mute spectators.”

Dashrath Charakta from MJA said that the modus operandi of the gang involves injecting the cows with some chemical to make them subconscious. This makes it very easy for the gang to transport the cattle to their destination — an illegal slaughter house.

Lalji Desai, another senior member of MJA, said: “This is the real irony of the situation. On one hand, the government is making tall claims of protecting the cows. Even electoral votes are being demanded over the issue. Nobody talks about the open slaughter of cows robbed from the Maldharis in the city. It is the duty of the police to safeguard public property. But they don’t even lodge an FIR in such cases. We have reasons to believe that the police are hand-in-glove with the gang.”

He added: “Attempts are being made to call this an act of a particular community, but that is not the case. This is being done by an organised gang, which has nothing to do with any community.”

Desai further said that he had gone with an aggrieved Maldhari to the Satellite police on one particular occasion. The police did nothing except for filing the report, he said.