Nashik: Three people have been booked for allegedly slaughtering two calves in Nashik in Maharashtra. Meat was seized by the Malegaon Police and a case has been registered at Azadnagar Police in Malegaon.
The police is on the lookout for the three accused who are currently on the run. If convicted under the new law, the accused will face five years in prison with an additional fine of Rs 10,000.
Even possession of beef is a crime under the new law in Maharashtra. Only buffaloes can be slaughtered in Maharashtra after new law came into force.
Cow slaughter has been banned in Maharashtra since 1976 but the new Act bans slaughter of bulls and bullocks also. Though it allows the slaughter of buffaloes. Nearly 1,000 licensed shops are likely to be affected in Mumbai with this decision.
India is the world's second largest beef exporter and fifth biggest consumer, although its majority Hindu community views cows to be sacred, and Modi's BJP is pushing for legal steps to "protect and promote the cow".
India consumed 2.3 million tonnes of beef in 2014 until October higher than for the whole of 2013 while exports were 1.95 million tonnes in the same period.
Even without a ban on beef, which is particularly popular in the southern and northeastern parts of India and tends to be cheaper than mutton and chicken, India's poultry output has been scaling annual records, as higher incomes boost demand for meat in the world's second-most populous country.
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