Tirupati: FIR Registered for Beheading of Goat by Balakrishna Fans for Daaku Maharaaj Movie Release, Following PETA India Complaint

After learning that a group of men beheaded a goat for superstitious reasons to support the release of actor Nandamuri Balakrishna’s movie Daaku Maharaaj, PETA India worked with senior police officials of Tirupati district to register a first information report (FIR). The goat was killed outside Pratap movie theatre, Tata Nagar, Tirupati. The cruel incident was caught on video, which shows men surrounding a frightened goat. The video then shows the goat, fully conscious, being beheaded with a machete and the slaughter taking place in full public view. The video also shows a man smearing the blood of the sacrificed goat on the movie poster.

The FIR was registered against five identified persons under sections 325 & 270, read with 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023; sections 4 & 5, read with 6 & 8 of the Andhra Pradesh Animals and Birds Sacrifices (Prohibition) Act, 1950; and sections 3, 11(1)(a) and 11(1)(l) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

In its complaint, PETA India pointed out that Section 4 of the Andhra Pradesh Animals and Birds Sacrifices (Prohibition) Act, 1950 prohibits any person from officiating, performing, serving, assisting, or participating in sacrificing an animal in any congregation. Section 5 prohibits the use of a place of public religious worship or adoration or its precincts for sacrificing animals by any person in possession of such precinct. Section 6 prescribes the penalties, and Section 8 makes all offences under the Act cognisable.

The Honourable Supreme Court has ordered that animals can be slaughtered only in licensed slaughterhouses and that municipal authorities must ensure compliance with this ruling. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, and the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011, permit the slaughter of animals for food only in licensed slaughterhouses equipped with species-specific stunning equipment.

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka prohibit religious sacrifice in any place of public religious worship, adoration, its precinct, or any congregation or procession connected with religious worship on a public street. Gujarat, Kerala, Puducherry, and Rajasthan also have specific laws prohibiting the religious sacrifice of any animal in any temple or its precinct.

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