Ahmedabad: A city court has sentenced a man to eight years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh for illegally possessing and storing beef at his residence in Vatva. However, the accused’s wife and son-in-law were acquitted after the court found insufficient evidence against them.

The verdict was delivered by City Civil and Sessions Court Judge Sameer Sangani, who convicted Ansar Qureshi, from whose shop, operating outside his house in Sartajnagar, Vatva, police had seized around 12 kg of beef during a raid in 2021.

According to the prosecution, the Vatva Police recovered suspicious meat and beef pellets from a refrigerator during the raid. The seized samples were later sent for forensic examination, where an FSL DNA profiling test confirmed that the meat was from a cow.

During the trial, although panch witnesses turned hostile, Additional Public Prosecutor B. S. Patel relied on the scientific evidence produced by the police and the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), along with relevant Supreme Court judgments, to establish the prosecution’s case.

Accepting the prosecution’s arguments, the court convicted Ansar Qureshi under the provisions of the Gujarat Animal Preservation Act (Cow Protection Act) and sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment along with a Rs 2 lakh fine. The court acquitted his wife, Barkatunnisha, and son-in-law, Saddam, giving them the benefit of doubt due to lack of evidence. DeshGujarat