Funeral of cow, 150 booked for attending during lockdown

Aligarh : Nearly 150 persons have been booked for being a part of a grand procession organised for the burial of a cow in Aligarh’s Memdi village.

The case was registered on Saturday against 25 identified and 125 unidentified persons under sections 188 (disobedience) and 269 (act likely to spread infection) of the IPC and section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, after a video of the incident went viral on social media.

Those booked in the case include about 100 women.

Civil Lines circle officer Anil Kumar said that the locals took out the procession in Memdi village on Thursday morning.

This abandoned cow was sick for the past few days and was found dead near a general store owned by one Dinesh Chandra Sharma.

The local people then decided to conduct the last rites of the cow with full honours.

Since the cow is considered a ‘holy animal’, it is common to perform the last rites with participation of the local people.

Sharma, the general store owner, said, “If some people took part in the funeral at their own will, how can I stop them? I took her for the burial. There is nothing wrong in it. I am ready to face any action.”

The cow was staying in the village for the past many years and the local people said that it was their responsibility to give her a proper funeral.

The police said that the people, who had gathered for the cow’s funeral which passed through the streets, had violated all social distancing norms and were not even wearing face masks.