Vishakhapatanam: The death of a cow and its cremation on Andhra University campus in the city sparked a row among a group of Yadav community people in the GVMC's 22nd ward on Saturday.
Ward corporator Pitala Murthy Yadav lodged a complaint with the Three Town police that AU's security officer was responsible for killing the cow and illegally cremating the animal's body on the university premises near the YVS Murthy auditorium in the early hours of Friday.
On Saturday, Yadav along with community members, visited the spot where the dead animal was buried and paid tributes. The city unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad also joined the complainant to fight against the people responsible for the death of the cow.
On behalf of the community and the cow owner, the corporator demanded Rs 1 lakh as compensation for killing the animal. According to the complainant, the AU security officer Khan was harassing the Yadav community in the name of slapping fines against the cattle roaming on the university campus. The death of a cow was a live example to describe the Khan's harassment of the Yadav community, that lived in the surrounding areas of AU for decades and eked out their living by rearing cattle.
Murthy Yadav said even AU Vice-Chancellor PVGD Prasad Reddy also did not know that the security officer killed the cow and cremated it on the university campus, near the auditorium beside the engineering college grounds.
When contacted, the Three Town police circle inspector K. Eswara Rao said they had received a complaint from the corporator Murthy Yadav, but did not get any formal complaint from the original owner of the cow.
"We are on the job of addressing this complaint in a proper manner as per the law. The university security officials seized the animal on charges of entering into the university premises against the rules," Eswara Rao said.
