🔴 Mutton, mobs, and mutual protection in Mominpara
For over a year, illegal cow slaughter was reported from Raipur’s Mominpara. Complaints were filed. Nothing moved. Eventually, local activists uncovered weighing scales stained with blood, supply ledgers dating back to early 2024, and even a Bangladeshi national allegedly involved. The site was not just a butchery unit-it was a covert supply chain masked within a residential zone.
Still, it took weeks for any formal police action. Why?
Because in Chhattisgarh today, policing isn’t driven by law-it’s driven by political clearance. And clearance, in such cases, is a well-traded commodity.
But Mominpara is only a pin on a map.
Illegal cow slaughter has become a rampant, organised racket across Chhattisgarh, particularly in its major cities like Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, and Korba. What was once confined to the shadows has now moved into the marble-floored kitchens of white-collar criminals- men and syndicates operating with quiet impunity from plush neighbourhoods, behind tinted glass doors and under full knowledge of local enforcement.
These aren’t fringe offenders. They are networked profiteers- shielded by silence, boosted by influence, and fed by demand. They don’t hide in ghettos- they dine in gated societies.
Their brazenness is underlined by the Congress Party’s public accusation. State party president Deepak Baij has gone on record stating that “Since the BJP came to power, over 5,000 cows are trafficked every month. In one year, more than 60,000 cattle have been pushed into slaughterhouses. Vehicles carrying beef, bones, and hides are caught routinely across districts.”
These are not minor figures-they’re indicators of a systemic failure. If this is the scale of the racket, and this is the frequency of seizures, the question is no longer whether the police are aware. It is: how deep is their connivance?
The uncomfortable truth is this: when crimes continue at this magnitude and for this long, someone in uniform is either blind, bought, or both.
🔴 Inside the police station: A woman’s dignity shamed, not shielded
At Khhamhardih Police Station in Raipur, a woman complainant faced something no citizen should - humiliation at the hands of not just a rogue man, but an entire complicit system.
She was abused, slandered, and character-assassinated by one Sonu Garcha right inside the police premises. Three policemen stood by, idle. When she approached SHO Manoj Kumar Sahu for help, the accused repeated his vulgar tirade - in front of the officer, who remained criminally silent.
Senior officers later instructed the SHO to arrest Garcha immediately. Not only did he refuse, he allowed Garcha to return the next day with “influential aides,” file a counter-complaint, and walk out - as if nothing had happened.
This wasn’t indiscipline. It was insubordination. It was sabotage. It was a declaration that rank-and-file officers can now choose which laws to enforce and which to bypass - based on convenience, caste, cash or command.
🔴 And what about the silent syndicates?
Why are we chasing those who film reels with crime-posturing, but ignoring the crorepati kabadis? The welders-turned-hotel-moguls? The puncture men who now own showrooms?
Why are conversion funding pipelines left unexamined? Why is scrap used to circulate crores through bogus invoices?
Why do old hawala routes through smuggled cattle, drugs, and foreign nationals continue to flourish in cities where DGPs, IGPs and SPs hold review meetings every week?
Crime in Chhattisgarh isn’t evolving. It has already evolved. What hasn’t evolved is the political-police equation to fight it.
🔴 Final Word: Let the broom not skip the drawing room
Chhattisgarh is not bleeding because criminals have grown stronger.
It is bleeding because institutions have grown indifferent.
A woman insulted in uniformed silence.
A criminal celebrated in repeat impunity.
A complainant slapped twice - first by goons, then by protocol.
White-collar syndicates cutting beef behind luxury gates.
Police officers dodging law at the behest of lobbyists.
A DSP’s government car turned into a party van for privilege.
And a public watching in silent, exhausted fear.
Is this the state the Constitution envisioned?
Either the system cleans house with full transparency and reach.
Or it should stop this cosmetic dance of justice altogether.
My Weekly Column on X-Twitter
🔴 LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT Versus CENTRE 🔴
CHHATTISGARH POLICE’S LAW AND ORDER IN A DEATH SPIRAL
“अपराधी तो छोड़ो, पुलिस डिपार्टमेंट अगर चाहे और सरकार इजाजत दे तो शहर में कोई छोटे बच्चे का खिलौना भी नहीं छीन सकता।”
(Forget the criminals-if the police department truly wants and the government allows, not even a child’s toy could be snatched in this city.)
Just two days ago, I found myself on a long and striking phone call with an IPS officer - one recently transferred to a high-crime district bordering Raipur, as part of the senior IPS reshuffle carried out on April 21.
His tone was firm, his words surgical. Without the usual bureaucratic vagueness, he laid it bare:
“अगर सरकार अपने पॉलिटिकल विल पावर को एक्सरसाइज़ करे तो एक 24 घंटे में छत्तीसगढ़ का लॉ एंड ऑर्डर और क्रिमिनल्स का इलाज हो जाएगा। बशर्ते सरकार बिना दबाव या दखल के अपने पुलिस डिपार्टमेंट के अधिकारियों को इसकी छूट दे।”
(If the government chooses to exercise its political will, law and order and criminal infestation in Chhattisgarh can be cured within 24 hours -provided it gives a free hand to its police officers without interference or pressure.)
This wasn’t some rhetoric from a rookie. This IPS officer is widely known for his clinical crackdowns, incorruptible posture, and a fearsome reputation that keeps even his own subordinates stiff-spined in his presence. His remarks were grounded not in theory but in observation - a state capital where gangsters assault contractors with knives in railway stations, where a woman complainant is publicly humiliated inside a police station, where muscle-backed loan sharks operate with impunity, and where sand mafia deals are allegedly blessed by uniforms themselves.
His voice reminded me of another. Not a bureaucrat, not a politician - but the silver screen’s sharpest truth-teller. This wasn’t just a dramatic flourish from Khakee, the 2004 Bollywood thriller. It was Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic distillation of the power and responsibility embedded within the khaki uniform.
His words echo what every citizen in Chhattisgarh is asking today - if the police truly want, and the government truly allows, why is the state still bleeding?
(Read the 🧵 Thread Below)
आदरणीय मुख्यमंत्री जी एवं छत्तीसगढ़ सरकार का हृदय से धन्यवाद। आपने हमारी पीड़ा को समझा और हमें फिर से सम्मानजनक जीवन जीने का अवसर दिया। आपके इस निर्णय ने हमारे आत्मविश्वास को पुनः जीवित किया। कोटि-कोटि आभार।@ChhattisgarhCMO@vijaysharmacg@ArunSao3@vishnudsai@vijaybaghelcg
#CG_Govt_धन्यवाद#सुशासन_की_सरकार
आदरणीय मुख्यमंत्री श्री @vishnudsai जी व छत्तीसगढ़ सरकार का हृदय से आभार 🙏
आपके नेतृत्व में 2600+ परिवारों के जीवन में शिक्षा, रोज़गार व सम्मान का नया सवेरा आया है। यह सिर्फ़ योजना नहीं, बल्कि हर घर में उम्मीद का दीपक है।