3 Hindu men wanting to buy 5 cow heads at ‘any price’ scares the residents of Birbhum, WB

On the day of Ram Navami, in a town called Rajnagar in Birbhum district in West Bengal, 3 Hindu men wanting to buy cow heads at any quoted price greatly scared the locals. We received the reports, pictures and video of this incident from Khan Sahil Mazhar who is a local journalist there. West Bengal is one of the few states in India along with Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim where cow slaughter is legally allowed and is governed by their respective state laws.

Reportedly, three men came down to Rajnagar main meat market and asked one of the butchers there for 5 cow heads. The butcher reportedly quoted 3 times the regular price for the 5 heads and the 3 youth agreed without any bargaining. Since the butcher did not have 5 heads, he informed them that they can buy the 3 heads he has.

While these people were buying the 3 heads and putting it into a sack, another butcher who is a more aged man and was in the nearby shop recognised one of the men in the group as he used to frequent the Rajnagar main market to buy cow skin as he was in the leather business. The fact that he was buying cow head instead of the usual cow skin made the aged butcher suspicious. When the aged butcher vocalised his doubts, multiple butchers from nearby shops stopped these 3 men and started questioning them. The man who used to frequent the Rajnagar main market for cow skin identified himself as Sufal Das. When the other two youth were questioned, one of them stated that he’s from a village called Tantipara. The third guy, however, first stated that he belonged to Lokpur, Birbhum and then later revised that to Kuldanga, Jharkhand. When they were asked for the reason as to why they needed 5 heads, Sufal Das intervened and reportedly stated that some villager in his village had gone medically insane and the local doctor had asked for cow heads for the purpose of research to treat the patient. This weird reason aggravated the doubts that the locals were starting to have. They further questioned Sufal Das, “Even if we believe your story, why would you need 5 heads for research instead of just 1 or 2?”. To this, Sufal Das reportedly had no answer. At this point of time, the third person who was giving multiple answers regarding where he hailed from and was refusing to identify himself fled the scene. The other two men were also allowed to leave after more questioning.

As soon as the two men left, the locals spread the news everywhere and reported the incident in Rajnagar police station along with the pictures of the three people and requested the police to investigate the matter and specifically find out as to what was the intention of these youth to demand 5 heads first and then buy 3 heads at a highly inflated price. The police reportedly assured the butchers that due process and investigation will be carried out. After this incident, the locals were in a constant state of alert as they suspected that the cow heads could be thrown in a sensitive place leading to an aggravated situation. They also rued the fact that they let the 3 men go instead of handing them over to the police.

Alt News also spoke to SP Birbhum Shri N. Sudheer Kumar and he denied any Hindu-Muslim angle to this issue. He stated that the youth were trying to get the cow heads for the purpose of a puja and that was the only purpose.