Kolkata: On May 13, 2026, the newly elected administration in Bengal, invoked the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act of 1950 ahead of Eid al-Adha, effectively prohibiting animal slaughter in open public spaces and confining the ritual solely to government-approved abattoirs.The economic severity of that enforcement, on not just Muslims but also members of the Hindu and Dalit communities, has been recorded in reports. At cattle markets in various places, police stood guard at places which would have seen the sale of animals. However, on June 24, more than 700 goats were sacrificed at a temple in Arambagh’s Mansadanga in the presence of local police, The Wire has learnt from one of the members of the family in charge of looking after the temple. This came a day after Justice Krishna Rao of the Calcutta high court delivered a directive in Ashis Kumar Roy v. The State of West Bengal and said that animal sacrifice must strictly comply with Section 3 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, which prohibits slaughter within a municipal area anywhere outside a recognised or licensed slaughterhouse.The primary petitioner in this case is Ashis Kumar Roy, from the traditional shebait family which has been custodians of the temple for years now. Roy said that he and his family members were increasingly finding it difficult to handle large-scale cullings and had moved court. “Due to the collusion of a section of the devotees, heavy political pressure, and the absolute inertia of the police administration, the illegal rituals could not be stopped,” Roy told The Wire.BJP MLAs’ roleThe nearly 300-year-old family-run Mansa Puja in Mansadanga had originally sacrificed one or two goats, said Roy. Over generations, the ritual’s scope ballooned as residents from local villages joined in larger numbers and the superstition associated with the sacrifices grew. Last year, 754 animals were slaughtered, the court order records. This year, Roy and a section of members of the family resolved to ban the practice. However, the resolution has faltered under alleged political pressure from the ruling party. Local BJP MLA Hemanta Bag, however, denied having made any interventions. “I was called to the site of the temple on May 31, to mediate a dispute between two groups. I advised them to go by whatever decision the temple committee takes. Nobody informed me if a case was filed in the court later or what its verdict was.” A video from the day of his visit, however, suggests a completely different picture. Seemingly under pressure from local villagers, the MLA is heard directing the priests to allow the animal sacrifice to take place. BJP MLA Hemanta Bag (in the scarf) is seen in a screengrab of an Arambagh Times video.Roy showed messages from BJP leader and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi, noting that she had personally telephoned the District Magistrate, the Superintendent of Police, and local officials to demand intervention, but also that no action was taken. The Wire has reached out to Gandhi but has not received a response. When pressed for an explanation regarding their failure to enforce the binding high court order, the police administration largely maintained silence.Speaking to The Wire, police of the local Arambagh station deflected accountability. “Stopping animal sacrifices at the last moment could have triggered communal tension. Our primary deployment here is strictly to monitor the massive crowds and maintain public order, not to interfere with religious sentiments,” said a middle-rank police officer who requested not to be named. The operational reality exposes a complete mockery of statutory protections. Roy said that the medical checkpoints which had been made mandatory were reduced to a farce. “The veterinary doctor issued no official certificate, and merely checked the goats for visible disease and recorded notes in a logbook,” claimed Roy. The Wire has not been able to contact the veterinary doctor. Defending the practice, priest Sankar Chatterjee said, “The initial decision to halt the sacrifice was taken far too late. Devotees had already purchased goats to fulfil their traditional vows. We had to retain the ritual solely to avert widespread anger and protests.” During the ritual, it is customary for one priest to offer the goats to the deity while two others hold the animals, said Roy. The slaughter is then executed with ritual swords by individuals managing the temple affairs. This assembly line flouts the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, requiring impervious flooring and strict sanitary controls, expressly prohibiting the slaughtering of an animal in visual sight of others to prevent psychological trauma.