Assam: Memorandum demanding police action on cattle thefts in Bokakhat

A CORRESPONDENT

BOKAKHAT: Despite multiple incidents of cattle theft in the Bokakhat sub-division, police have failed to apprehend a single thief. Villagers, most of whom rear cattle, are now forced to stay awake through the night to guard their livestock. Many are even keeping their cattle inside their homes at night.

Locals suspect the involvement of a well-organized and powerful cattle theft syndicate. These thieves reportedly use luxury vehicles and may be armed. It is also suspected that local informants are monitoring households and passing on information to the gang. However, such reports remain unverified, and notifying the police has yielded no results.

In fact, police officers have allegedly not even visited the homes of affected families to gather details. Since January, at least 21 cattle have been stolen from Katiakhuli village alone. Preliminary reports say that a Jersey cow owned by Haren Saikia, two milch cows belonging to Bolo Saikia, two cows and a bull calf owned by Haren Gogoi, an ox belonging to Indreshwar Gogoi, and a cow owned by Chandan Bora have all been stolen. All these thefts occurred late at night.

Despite the villagers promptly informing the police after each incident, no proper investigation was initiated. Feeling helpless, local residents submitted a memorandum on May 5 to the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Bokakhat, with copies sent to the sub-divisional police officer and officer-in-charge of Bokakhat Police Station.

Significantly, in the presence of the public, the SDO immediately called the concerned police official and instructed swift action. Notably, although cattle thefts have been occurring in the village for the past five months, it was only after the submission of the memorandum that police finally visited the village to begin their investigation. However, the residents remain dissatisfied. They allege that if the police had acted on the initial reports and launched timely investigations, the culprits could have been caught.

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