Indian police prioritise catching cow killers over bringing inspector’s murderer to justice

Police in the northern Indian city of Bulandshahr claim their “top priority” is finding the people responsible for the death of several cows, despite the fact one of their own officers was killed during the violence that followed.

“Our main concern at this moment is to find out who killed those cows,” a police spokesman told The Indian Express. “Our belief is that once we solve that case, it will throw light on how the murder occurred. The cow-killers are our top priority. The murder and rioting case is on the back burner for now.”

Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh died on the morning of December 3 when a riotous mob blocked the road in front of his police post in Uttar Pradesh state, demanding action over rumours of cow slaughter. A postmortem showed a bullet was lodged in his skull. Another man, 20-year-old local Sumit Kumar, also died in the violence.

Ajay Kumar, head of Chingrawati village where the incident occurred, said there was a “huge crowd” of people on the day of Singh’s death, whipped into a frenzy by men raising slaughtered “cows’ heads high, again and again”.

“The police were trying to disperse the crowd but more and more people kept joining,” he said.

Cows are considered sacred by many Hindus and those accused of slaughtering them have been lynched by vigilante mobs in the past. In Uttar Pradesh and many Indian states, it is illegal to even possess beef.