Police raid rooster farms in crackdown on cockfights ahead of Sankranti festival in Andhra Pradesh

Stern action will be taken against organisers, gamblers and those who play banned games, warn police

Police have intensified their crackdown on cockfight organisers ahead of the Sankranti festival which is just over a month away.

Patrolling is being done in villages, with police officials instructed to bind over organisers, punters and gamblers who engage in the banned sport.

Raids are being conducted on farms where roosters were being tamed, and at places where the bloodsport was conducted clandestinely in the past, police said.

“Cases will be registered against the accused under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, Section 9 (1) of Gaming Act, Arms Act, 1959 and other charges against cockfight organisers and gamblers,” the police warned.

The NTR District Police Commissionerate and the Krishna district police stepped up vigil along the Krishna riverbed, island villages and in the villages where cockfight arenas were arranged in the previous years.

“Police raided workshops where the knives meant to be used in cockfights were being made. Several knifes were seized apart from the equipment used to make them,” said a police officer, who participated in the raid.