Veraval court sentences three to 7-year jail for illegal beef possession

Veraval District and Sessions Court sentenced three men to seven years of rigorous imprisonment after finding them guilty of illegal beef possession.

The convicts, identified as Imran Radhava (32), Farhan Radhava (20), and Faisal Radhava (20), all residents of Veraval, were booked following a police raid. Acting on a precise tip-off on October 18, 2019, a police patrolling team raided a meat shop located near Kirmani Road. During the morning raid, the three accused were caught red-handed weighing a large quantity of meat.

Upon a thorough search of the premises, authorities seized two gunny bags containing approximately 40 kilograms of suspected meat, alongside butcher tools. To confirm the origin of the meat, the police initially called a  local veterinary officer. As a definitive visual identification was inconclusive, the sample was preserved and analysed on-site by a specialised forensic science laboratory (FSL) ‘Cow Meat Van’ dispatched from Rajkot. 

The FSL testing definitively established that the seized substance was cow meat.

The court held the accused guilty under Section 8(4) read with Sections 5(1)(A) and 6(B) of the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2017. Alongside the seven-year rigorous imprisonment term, the court imposed a fine of ₹1,00,000 on each convict. Failure to clear the fine will attract an additional one year of simple imprisonment.