A man was today arrested in connection with an alleged assault on three persons who were transporting buffaloes in a truck in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji area on Saturday night.
Police said 32-year-old Shashank Sharma, a resident of Rohini who rents out school vans, was arrested this morning.
Sharma claimed to be a member of the People For Animals (PFA), an NGO founded and chaired by Union minister Maneka Gandhi.
He told police he saw the truck near Dhaula Kuan and started following it in his car as it was being driven rashly and foul smell was emanating from it.
"He intercepted the truck near Kalkaji temple," said a senior police officer.
We have gone through his call records and it is clear that he had called alleged PFA member Gaurav Gupta, who came there along with a few other animal rights activists.
However, he has claimed that he was not involved in the attack on the trio. Gaurav, meanwhile, is expected to join the probe tomorrow and police are hoping that he will be able to shed more light on the sequence of events.
The other persons, who were allegedly involved in the attack, have been asked to join the investigation.
Rizwan, Ashu and Kamil, who were assaulted, were arrested yesterday and later released on bail.
They have claimed that the attackers snatched their cell phones and Rs 6,000.
Police said they would verifying their claims if they give a supplementary statement about their cell phones and money being snatched.
The trio is also claiming that they were attacked by around 15-20 men and in case these are found to be true and are given in a supplementary statement to us, we might add more sections to the FIR, added the officer.
Following the incident, two FIRs were registered -- one against the three men for transporting cattle in an inhumane manner and another against those who assaulted them.
The trio were booked for mischief by killing or maiming cattle and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act as they were carrying more number of animals in the truck than rules permit.
The men had legal transit papers for transporting the animals.
The second case of voluntarily causing hurt and wrongful restraint was registered against unidentified members of the PFA, according to police officers.
The PFA had denied any association with the incident.
Police were verifying whether the assailants had any link to the animal rights body.
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