Ghaziabad: A city court on Tuesday granted bail to a Meerut resident, who was accused of cow slaughter and had been lodged in jail since May 20.Additional sessions judge Manish Nigam observed that cow slaughter occurred in the forest of Sara village on April 30. The FIR was registered against unknown persons and the accused was not arrested at the scene. “He was summoned from jail on a B warrant as he was in jail in connection with another case. The investigation in the case is ongoing. There is sufficient basis for the accused to be released on bail without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case. Accordingly, the bail application is allowed,” the court ruled. Having heard both sides, the judge directed Nafis alias Nawab to execute a bond of Rs 50,000 and two sureties of the like amount.According to the prosecution, the FIR was registered by Niwadi police station on a written complaint of one Nishant Tyagi, alleging that on April 30, he received information about cow remains in the forests of Sara. The plaintiff said that when they, along with Bajrang Dal members, went to the scene, the remains were found lying in two different fields. The heads, skin, some legs, a sharp knife and an anaesthesia injection were recovered from the scene. Based on this, the case was registered under Section 3/5/6 of the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act.Counsel for the applicant argued that he was falsely implicated in the case out of enmity. “The applicant was not arrested at the scene. The FIR was registered against unknown persons. No recovery of any kind was made from the applicant. The police summoned the applicant from the district jail in Meerut and issued a custody warrant,” the counsel said.He pointed out that the FIR was lodged by Tyagi, a Bajrang Dal activist, but no one filed a report of cow theft at any police station. “The FIR was registered solely because the remains of a cow were found in the forest. The applicant was neither seen slaughtering a cow nor arrested on the spot. He was named solely on the basis of an informant’s statement,” he said.Prosecution counsel objected to the bail, saying that the applicant was accused of cow slaughter on April 30 and remains of cow and syringe were recovered from the forest.
