The Chief Minister of Indian state Gujarat, Vijay Rupani has announced that slaughtering cows and transporting beef will soon be punishable by a life sentence, the harshest penalty yet for crimes against the revered animal in the Hindu-majority country, The Guardian reported.
He said his government would introduce a bill in the next week to bolster existing laws against butchering cows and related crimes. The current punishment is a Rs50,000 fine (£622) and up to seven years in jail.
“We want to make this law more strict,” said Rupani, a member of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party whose elected officials – including the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi – have long championed a national ban on beef consumption.
“In the bill, we will make a provision wherein people found involved in cow-slaughtering as well as transportation of beef will be punished with life imprisonment,” Rupani told a gathering at a Hindu social organisation. “Their vehicles too will be seized permanently.”
A number of BJP-led states have extended bans or tightened punishments against cow slaughter since Modi became prime minister in 2014. The former Gujarat chief minister was elected on a platform that included a vow to outlaw it.
Killing cows or transporting beef in states such as Haryana, Jharkand or Jammu and Kashmir is punishable by large fines and up to 10 years’ prison. Beef consumption is permitted in only eight of India’s 29 states and territories.
