The police in Rajasthan’s Alwar city on Sunday said they had recovered the body of a man suspected to be a cow smuggler from an abandoned vehicle and “rescued” 20 cows, the Hindustan Times reported.

Alwar Superintendent of Police Rahul Prakash said officers in Baswa village in Dausa district were tipped off about a vehicle smuggling cows and had set up barricades to stop it.

“The smugglers broke the barricades,” Prakash said, adding that the accused and the police were in a gunfight, too, but no one was injured. Prakash said the accused fled after two tyres of their vehicle got deflated.

“After the vehicle was searched, we found a body and the cattle,” the senior officer said. “The man may have died while trying to escape.”

Baswa Police Station House Officer Jaheer Abbas claimed the alleged cow smugglers broke the vehicle’s windshield in an attempt to escape the firing, The Indian Express reported. He said the deceased was then run over by the same vehicle when he jumped out.

“The man who died was identified as Aas Mohammed from Adwar village in Nuh, Haryana,” Rajgarh Circle Officer Tarachand said. “He had an earlier case of cow smuggling against him.” However, the Hindustan Times quoted unidentified police officers as saying that the deceased has not been identified yet.

Tarachand said 23 cows were found in the truck, some of them dead.