Thane: Police in adjoining Thane district claimed to have seized three tonnes of beef from a tempo and have arrested the vehicle's driver and cleaner. 

The Station House Officer of Padgha police station, in whose limits the vehicle was intercepted, said that the lab test of the meat had confirmed that it was beef. 

The vehicle was intercepted in the early hours of Wednesday at Ajroli check-post following a tip-off from Bajrang Dal activists about the tempo carrying beef, said the official. 

He said that the tempo was coming from Nashik to Mumbai and the beef was concealed beneath scrap items loaded onto the tempo. 

It was being transported from Sangamner to Govandi in Mumbai where it was to be delivered to a meat-seller, police said. 

The official said that cases under relevant sections of the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act of 1995 and also the Indian Penal Code had been registered against the two arrested persons.