Fact Check: Caught selling cows before Qurbani in Bengal? This video is OLD
India Today Fact Check found that this incident occurred during the TMC regime, when a local BJP leader allegedly harassed two Muslim men transporting cows for farming.
The Calcutta High Court on May 21 reserved its order in a batch of petitions challenging the West Bengal government's recent notification regulating the slaughter of cattle. The newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party government, ahead of Eid-ul-Adha, had issued a notification under the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950, requiring veterinary assessment of the age and physical condition of cattle before slaughter.
A video now going viral shows a few men tying up and threatening two elderly Muslim men. The clip was shared with captions like: “Unbelievable change in West Bengal within a week. Two Muslims came to sell a cow for Qurbani. Locals caught them, as they didn’t have the requisite papers as required by the new law. Gone are the days when Mamata used to give them free and priority access to everything.”
India Today Fact Check found that the incident dates back to July 2025, when the Trinamool Congress was in power in the state.
OUR PROBE
Reverse-searching keyframes from the video with Google Lens led us to a Facebook post shared by Narendranath Chakraborty, a Trinamool Congress leader from the West Bardhaman district, on August 1, 2025. This post had images similar to the viral clip. This made it clear that this incident predated the new BJP government in the state.
The Bangla caption of this post stated that a BJP leader called Parijaat Ganguly harassed some Durgapur locals on July 31, 2025. Chakraborty demanded that Ganguly be arrested.
A keyword search led us to August 2025 reports published by The Hindu and India Today that said that Parijaat Ganguly, the leader of a cow vigilante group, tied up and assaulted some Muslim men and forced them to do sit-ups while holding their ears. Later, TMC leader Narendranath Chakraborty filed a written complaint at the Coke Oven Police Station, seeking action against those involved.
On August 1, 2025, the West Bengal Police wrote in a social media post that “two persons belonging to the minority community, while carrying cattle for farming purposes, were detained and severely beaten up yesterday in Durgapur by some hooligans belonging to a particular political party. A case has been registered over the incident, and two of the miscreants have already been arrested.”
Per a Telegraph report dated August 12, 2025, the main accused, Parijaat Ganguly, was arrested in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
NEW CATTLE SLAUGHTER RULES
To understand the legalities and implications of this act, we spoke to Shamim Ahmed, a practising advocate at the Calcutta High Court. Ahmed said, “This notification is not a freshly enacted statute; it is essentially a stricter enforcement of the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950, backed by earlier Calcutta High Court directions.”
He explained that legally, cattle slaughter remained permissible, but only after obtaining joint certification from civic authorities and a government veterinary surgeon confirming the animal is aged, incapacitated, or unfit for work or breeding.
But in practical terms, Ahmed said, this administrative process may “significantly restrict the availability of cattle for Qurbani during the upcoming Eid. The impact will not be limited to the Muslim community alone. A large section of cattle traders and owners, many of whom are Hindus dependent on seasonal livestock sales, will also likely face economic hardship due to reduced transactions.”
Therefore, it is evident that the viral claim is misleading.
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