Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 25, 2001
In a typical Bollywood-style members
of the Animal Welfare Board nabbed a jeep carrying illegally slaughtered
meat at 5 am at Dongri on Wednesday. The board members noticed blood dripping
from a jeep in front of their car. They pursued the jeep from Crawford
Market through the narrow bylanes of Dongri, where they finally trapped
the jeep at Pala Gali. While four of the five occupants (no: MH11H6825)
managed to flee, an 18-year-old butcher's hand was arrested and is in the
custody of the Dongri police. The accused, Shaheed Naseem Qureshi from
Govandi, has been charged under Section 410 (i)41 of the BMC Act and Section
115(C) 22-51 of the Bombay Police Act for selling unauthorized meat. Dongri
police, which assisted the board during the raid, told. Newsline that 500
kg of meat was confiscated.
Assistant Municipal Commissioner
(Markets), A Hiree, says, "Zeenat Qureshi of the AWB contacted me at 7
am and requested us to send a squad." Civic officials loaded the illegal
meat into a van and took it to Bombay Veterinary College at Parel for examination.
Says Dr V L Devpurkar, principal and dean of the faculty at the Bombay
Veterinary College: "The Anatomy Department will test the meat to determine
whether it is cow meat or buffalo meat," The department has taken two skulls
and samples of meat for microscopic examination.
"If we are able to get an intact
skin sample, by studying the skin texture, we shall be able to confirm
the identity of the animal," he adds. However, Dr Devpurkar also states
that microscopic tests do not give a cent per cent diagnosis and that chemical
tests are more reliable. "Unfortunately, the college has neither cattle
antiserum or the instruments to carry out chemical tests to ascertain the
species of the animal," he explains.
Asked whether the confiscated meat
is fit for human consumption, Dr Devpurkar said that the college has only
been asked to ascertain the species of the animal meat and not to conduct
any bacteriological tests. The test results will be out in seven to eight
days. Adds Additional Municipal Commissioner Hiree, "We don't consider
the meat fit for human consumption since it has already been transported
in such an illegal and unhygenic manner.
Abrar Qureshi and his wife Zeenat,
both members of the board, say that 30 to 35 tonnes of meat is sold in
Mumbai daily, of which a mere 25 per cent comes from the Deonar abattoir.
The rest is sold by unauthorized butchers in unhygenic conditions. "We
believe that the meat we seized was supplied from one of the butcher-kangpins
at Govandi and was headed for she in Bengalipura lane at Dongri," says
Abrar Qureshi, 'who along with his wife Zeenat have been tracking illegal
butchers in Central Mumbai and conducting regular raids.
The Qureshis are members of the
Welfare Board, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Union Ministry
of Environment and Forests.
