Police also arrested four members of another cattle smuggling gang, including two elderly persons aged 70 and 67 years.
Sonbhadra’s additional superintendent of police (headquarters) Kalu Singh on Sunday said that on getting inputs regarding movement of notorious cattle smugglers Yunus Ansari and Sharif Ansari of Gadhwa district in Jharkhand, the Chopan and Hathinala police cordoned the Varanasi-Shaktinagar highway around midnight and launched a massive checking drive.
During the checking, the cop tried to stop a SUV near Chorpania forest when the miscreants on board opened indiscriminate fire on the police team while trying to escape. However, when the cops surrounded them, the miscreants jumped off the vehicle and started running away. During an exchange of fire, the miscreants suffered bullet injuries in their legs.
Singh said two country-made revolvers, cartridges, three mobile phones, a SUV and Rs 5120 cash were recovered from them. The cops also nabbed the SUV’s driver Mithubn Kumar.
Hours after this arrest, Hathinala cops got inputs about movement of another cattle smuggler Shadiq Ansari (70), who was carrying a cash reward of Rs 25,000 on his head. The police cordoned the Hathinala-Duddhi road on Sunday morning and launched a checking drive. During the drive, Shadiq and his three gang members, including Diljan Sheikh (67), Mukhtar Ansari (35) and Jamayat Ansari (47), all natives of Gadhwa district in Jharkhand, were arrested.