Gandhinagar: Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which makes many strict provisions including life imprisonment for killing cows, today got Governor O P Kohli’s consent and consequently became an act.

Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said that the Governor today put his signature on the bill which was passed on the last day of the recently concluded budget session of the Gujarat assembly on March 31.

The bill, which was an amended version of the concerned act (Gujarat Animal Preservation Act of 1954 ) which was last amended in 2011 during the regime of then chief minister Narendra Modi, makes cow slaughter and its smuggling and other related crimes a non-bailable offence. Killing or getting a cow killed has been made punishable with life imprisonment in the new bill.

According to the new act, anyone found to be in possession of beef will be slapped with a fine that can range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, and imprisoned for seven to 10 years. And that, too, is a non-bailable offence.

Before this bill, the penalty was 50 thousand while the jail term for possession was 3 to 7 years. In another major amendment, the new Bill included a provision that vehicles caught for transporting cows, beef or beef products illegally will be forfeited to the state government. The maximum fine for the offence has also been increased from Rs 50,000 to one ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Besides, the punishment for conviction for illegal transportation of cow, beef or beef products has been increased from three years imprisonment to seven years.

The Act allows transportation of animals of cow progeny with permission, but only between 7 pm and 5 am.

In 2011, when Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat, the state government had imposed a complete ban on slaughter of cows, transportation and selling of cow meat by amending the Act at that time.

DeshGujarat

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