Police file case after car runs over and kills pup in housing society

MUMBAI : A case was filed by the police after CCTV footage at an upscale Thane housing society showed the car of a resident ran over a threemonth-old black puppy and killed it on Thursday. When they found the pup — christened Kaalu — lying dead without any injuries or sign of blood, society members at Unnathi Gardens, a housing society in Devdaya Nagar, Thane (West), first suspected food poisoning. Later, when they checked the CCTV footage, they saw the blue car of Atul Ghangurde, a resident who works with an airline, running over the puppy. They approached the police who registered an FIR against the person driving the car under IPC section 429 (mischief by killing or maiming an animal) that prescribes a maximum punishment of five years in jail, section 119 of the Maharashtra Police Act (cruelty towards animals) and the Motor Vehicle Act, section 184. "This was not an accident. It is clear Ghangurde was aware of a dog ahead of him and yet he drove in from a distance and crushed Kaalu under his wheels. Despite the pup and its mother yelping he did not bother to stop," said Praveen Yabaji, a resident of the society. "We are a pet friendly society with three dogs and three puppies, including Kaalu, who we'd regularly take care of, feed, and sterilise. Children play with the pups and they're much loved. On Thursday morning, when we discovered Kaalu lying dead with no injuries or blood on her we thought at first that she had died of food poisoning. Wondering, what could have happened in a matter of hours since we last saw her the previous night, we decided to go through the recording on our surveillance camera. That's when we saw that Atul Ghangurde, a resident of our society, had deliberately run over Kaalu," said Praveen Yabaji, a resident of the society. Yabaji along with other members of the society rushed the puppy to the nearest vet for a medical report and then headed to the Vartak Nagar police station to lodge a complaint against Ghangurde. "We submitted the medical report and CCTV footage as evidence. The police were unsure about the IPC sections to be applied at first and had to be guided by animal rights activist Salim Charania before the FIR could finally be registered," said Yabaji. He claimed that Ghangurde has in the past tried to discourage the feeding of dogs on the premises. "We turned a deaf ear to his demands. But this is an extreme act of cruelty. The police have assured us of taking action and it's essential to send out a strong message to animal haters, including him, that it cannot be so easy to get away with attacks on mute creatures." The incident also sparked massive outrage on social media after Yabaji posted the distressing CCTV footage along with a note on Facebook that was shared over 300 times and received more than 20,000 views within hours, each one urging strict action against the perpetrator. Despite the Supreme Court's ruling in January this year that stray dogs too have a right to live and a draft bill yet to be tabled in Parliament that fights animal abuse, brutality against them has not ceased or shown any decline. And in the lack of implementation of the laws that exist or genuine attempts to prevent unnecessary attacks, the problem has only worsened, feel animal rights activists. "It's most important to weed out the root cause — apathy — which can only come from extensive sensitisation against animal cruelty and awareness of what is an offence and what it can invoke," feels Yuvraj Kaginkar, veterinary physician Source : THE TIMES OF INDIA