MUZAFFARNAGAR: Police in Muzaffarnagar have arrested and sent to jail two girls, one 12 years old and the other 16, after picking them up along with their mother and six other persons on charges of cow slaughter. The two children were shown as adults in court and dispatched to jail when they should have been sent to a juvenile home.

TOI has copies of the Aadhaar cards of the two girls that show their year of birth as 2001 and 2005.

On Friday morning, Khatauli police had arrested nine persons, including the two girls and three women, for alleged slaughter of cows. Cops also claimed to have seized 10 quintals of meat and butchering implements from a house. Four other accused fled the scene, police had said. Two other women are among those arrested.

Later in the evening, police produced all the nine accused as adults before a local court here, which in turn sent them to judicial custody. According to law, minors are not handcuffed or sent to jail. They are produced before juvenile justice board and then sent to correction homes.

Source:  Times of India