OUR CORRESPONDENT
DIGBOI: The accumulated public anger against rising incidents of cattle theft was ventilated in Digboi’s Golai area in Tinsukia district on Wednesday, hours after the locals caught one of the thieves red-handed.
According to the local residents of Golai, the infuriated and helpless people in the area had been laying nets to catch the cattle thieves and find respite from the menace of the unabated incidents of thefts within the Digboi jurisdiction.
One identified as Ibrahim Ansari (21 years), a resident of Golai No. 2, was held by the people of the locality along with the stolen cattle in the wee hours on Wednesday. Three of his accomplices managed to flee the scene while Ansari alone had to bear the wrath of the mob.
The stolen cattle belonging to Lok Bahadur Chetry of Golai No. 3 were being chased by a gang while the people caught one of the thieves and thrashed him black and blue.
However, Kartik from Panbari, Rupam Rajbonshi and Bubu from Ledo area were among the absconding gang members.
Spitting the anger upon the accused, one of the residents of Golai No. 3 alleged that the menace of cattle thefts have been rising in the Oil town at an alarming pace.
The aggrieved people did not spare police personnel too when they arrived at the place of the incident and tried to rescue the thief. Timely intervention of OC Digboi Police Station Dibya Jyoti Dutta helped restore peace and bring the thief under police custody. “The poor agrarian people are shattered after losing bulls at the evil hands of the thieves, that too at the onset of the monsoon,” said a member of the Village Defence Party.
Meanwhile, what raises concern here is the recovery of a parking vehicle from residence Line No. 11 of the Powai Tea garden area, meant to transport the stolen cattle. Whether the tea garden areas in Digboi provide easy shelter for the cattle smugglers and thieves to continue the cattle trade is a pertinent question disturbing the people. Nevertheless, based on an FIR, the accused Ibrahim Ansari was prosecuted u/s 305 BNS under a case No. 18/2025.
Also Read: Assam: National Leprosy Eradication Day observed in Tezpur
Also Watch: