PRAYAGRAJ, Oct. 18 -- Police have arrested four men involved in cattle smuggling after a truck carrying 33 bovines was found stuck and abandoned in Birha village on the Koraon-Naribari main road in Prayagraj district, officials said on Friday.

A joint team of the Koraon police and Special Operations Group (SOG) arrested the accused near a railway bridge on the Koraon-Meja road on Thursday night. Police also recovered a vehicle (UP14 CA 3434), a rope, and two knives from their possession. All four were sent to jail on Friday.

According to ACP (Meja) SP Upadhyay, one of the accused, Aqeel, a resident of Chamrauha in Rampur district, confessed that he and his associates had been engaged in cow smuggling for a long time to earn a livelihood...