A man was arrested and several unidentified suspects were booked for allegedly smuggling 21 tonnes of beef in a refrigerated truck intercepted at the Karman toll plaza in Palwal’s Hodal, police said on Tuesday. Investigators said the meat was confirmed to be cow meat after analysis by a government-run molecular biology laboratory in Faridabad.Palwal police seize 21 tonnes of beef, arrest truck driverPolice said the consignment was loaded at a factory in Hyderabad, Telangana, and was being transported to Dadri in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, on forged bills claiming the truck was carrying cat and dog food. Senior police officials said the consignment was suspected to belong to those involved in industrial-scale illegal slaughtering for beef meant for export to foreign countries. A Palwal police official said it was the biggest haul of beef seized during smuggling in Haryana in the past several years.Investigators said the 46-year-old truck driver, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, was arrested on Monday. A Palwal court remanded him to 10 days’ police custody on Tuesday to facilitate interrogation and interstate raids outside Haryana to identify and arrest other suspects.Inspector Sunder Pal, station house officer of Hodal police station, said the truck, bearing a Gujarat registration number, was intercepted between 6pm and 7pm on June 24 following specific intelligence inputs. “After interception, the driver presented us with a bill which showed the truck was carrying cat and dog food. We roped in a veterinary doctor who collected samples which were sent to a government-run molecular biology laboratory in Faridabad,” he said.Pal said the laboratory report was received on Monday and confirmed the samples were cow meat. “Following this, we immediately registered an FIR under various sections of the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act on Monday and arrested the driver,” he said.Investigators said the driver only knew the locations where the consignment was loaded in Hyderabad and was to be unloaded in Dadri. “Teams will be dispatched soon to Hyderabad and Dadri for carrying out raids to nab other suspects involved in this racket,” an investigator said.