British Woman Shot At By Cattle Smugglers In Gurgaon

Gurgaon: Two women in Gurgaon narrowly escaped being shot at by alleged cattle smugglers early Tuesday morning. The two friends were trying to free the animals packed into a speeding tempo when one of the smugglers opened fire.

Police said Sonia Sharma, a British national and her friend Archie Baranwal were driving their new SUV on the Gurgaon-Alwar road at around 2:30 am when they noticed five to six cows in the tempo that was speeding.

The women noticed that the van had no rear tyres and that it was speeding away on its rims. "We found some boys sitting on its roof. We chased the vehicle to prevent the illegal cattle lifting. The person sitting next to the driver was abusing us," Ms Sharma told news agency PTI.

Smelling something suspicious, the women asked the driver to stop and also called the police.

"To our horror, they started firing! They fired a shot at us also, fortunately it missed us," Ms Sharma said. But the two women continued to follow the van. Fifteen minutes later, the police caught up with the speeding van. The alleged cattle smugglers abandoned their van and fled from the spot.

Police said a case had been registered in Sohna Police Station against four to five unidentifiedcattle smugglers following the complaint by the two women. One of the women alleged that there was little evidence of police patrolling on the roads at that hour.

"No arrest has been made," an officer said.

(With inputs from PTI)