Herd of donkeys put in UP jail for munching on expensive plants.

NewDelhi: A herd of donkeys in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun district were recently put behind bars for allegedly committing the ‘crime’ of feasting on expensive plants outside Ural jail here. After being kept in detention for four days, they were let loose on Monday. There is no word on whether they learnt their lesson.

In what can only be termed as an extremely bizarre case of official high-handedness, the donkeys were accused of destroying the plants outside the jail despite their owners reportedly being repeatedly warned to not let the animals wander. The plants apparently cost several lakhs. “These donkeys had destroyed some very expensive plants which our senior officer had arranged for planting inside jail and despite warnings, the owner let loose his animals here. So we detained the donkeys,” head constable RK Mishra told .

In a state where the police machinery was previously put into action to locate a minister’s missing buffalos, the donkeys failed to get any political backing for four days before a local politician came to the rescue and posted the bail amount.

Interestingly, UP – notorious for its high crime rate – has begun cracking down on criminal activities in recent weeks. Putting animals in the lockup though would hardly be much to bray about for the police force here.