Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has asked director-general of police Niraj Sinha to direct district police against harassing cattle keepers and animal traders in the garb of checking illegal trafficking.

The directive was issued at a review meeting of development projects at Palamau district in Jharkhand during the course of the Khatiyani Johar Yatra.

Cabinet minister and Garhwah MLA Mithilesh Thakur and Manika MLA Ramchandra Singh raised objections against police actions against cattle keepers and animal traders and claimed the cops were making money under the garb of checking illegal animal trade, especially cattle.

Hemant asked DGP Sinha to hold a meeting with district police heads and direct them to inform the district animal husbandry officer before taking action against animal trading and smuggling.

“Animal husbandry is a source of employment in rural areas and people should not be harassed on frivolous ground. Our state is confronted by a malnutrition problem, with 40 per cent of children being stunted and malnourished and 50 per cent of women being anaemic. “In such a scenario, we need each house in the village to have animals so that they can use their milk and egg for better nutrition,” Hemant said at the meeting.

Taking a dig at the BJP, Hemant said they were only interested in inciting mob lynching in the garb of stopping cattle trade, and assured that nobody would be harassed.

Jharkhand parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam during the budget session of the Assembly in March this year admitted that there had been 46 incidents of mob lynching in the state between 2016 and 2021 out of which 11 cases had been executed and 51 accused given life imprisonment.

Alam also said the government would soon constitute fast-track courts for mob-lynching cases.

In December last year, the Jharkhand Assembly had passed anti-mob lynching bills which is awaiting the governor’s consent.