In a follow up to the gross incident of the gang-rape of a goat, which had repelled the whole nation, the police last night arrested Jaffar Khan (22) and Saahukar Khan (21), among six other suspected rapists who are absconding.

The suspects are residents of Maroda village in Nagina, Nuh (earlier known as Mewat) of Haryana. It’s about 73 km south of Gurugram (Gurgaon).

The goat was pregnant. She died a day after the sexual assault. MyNation was the first to report the incident of crime on 27 July.

The police have slapped Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and the Animal Cruelty Act on the suspects. The law prohibits “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal”.

Jaffar Khan and Saahukar Khan are truck drivers with a long record of crime in the region, the police informed journalists. They have been involved in cattle and motorcycle thefts and arrested several times.

The owner of the goat, Aslup Khan, had caught the alleged rapist gang during the commission of the crime, but five of them managed to flee while three were manhandled by the villagers.

However, the villagers let the three suspects go subsequently even as they said they had five other accomplices in the crime. One of those who were caught happened to pass by the day after the gang-rape. He, Aslup Khan said, laughed at the condition of the goat while its wounds were being treated.

Later on, one of the goat-rapists who had been caught by the villagers fled the village, too.

“We had formed three teams who were conducting raids at suspected locations. Two of them have been arrested from Firozpur Zirka and will be produced before the civil court on Friday,” Nazneen Bhasin, superintendent of police, Nuh, said. Five other suspects have not yet been identified, the police said, while there not confirming whether there was a sixth accomplice.

The owner of the dead goat has identified the arrested suspects as neighbours in his village. “I cannot forgive them for what they have done. The goat was like my child and was to deliver. I want them to pay me a compensation of Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, they had stolen another four goats that I owned,” said 27-year-old Khan, who is a truck driver like the suspects.

“My goat was injured and lying on the ground. It was not even able to walk. I took it home and applied medicines on the wounds on its head and nose. It did not eat anything the next day and was lying as if it was paralysed,” Aslup Khan said.

Dr Ramvir Bhardwaj, veterinary surgeon of animal husbandry posted at Nagina, conducted the post-mortem examination. He said that the goat died of brain haemorrhage. “It was 50 days pregnant and would have delivered two babies in the last week of November. There were two foetuses found in the abdomen during the autopsy,” Bhardwaj said.