Animal lover stops man from killing dog, gets him booked

An animal lover on Tuesday registered an FIR against a Bhayandar resident who allegedly not only tried to kill one of the stray dogs her mother and she were feeding but also misbehaved and got into a fight with her. The accused was arrested the same day on charges of outraging the modesty of a woman and criminal intimidation. However, he was later granted bail by a court.

According to the complainant, Chandni Kamath, on August 12, her mother and she were on a routine walk in their building premises to feed stray dogs when the accused allegedly came towards her with an iron rod in his hand, with the intent to hit one of the stray dogs. At that point, Ms Kamath grabbed the rod and prevented the accused from hurting the animal. Ms Kamath said, “It is not only the attempt to kill the dog that made me approach the police but also his (accused’s) misbehaviour towards my mother and me. That night, when I stopped him from hitting the dog, he threatened to kill me and even threw his shoes at me. He, along with some other men from the society, started following us. Every night since then, they would pass comments when my mother and I went to feed the dogs”.

Ms Kamath said though the incident occurred on August 12, she approached the superintendent of police, Thane (rural) only on Tuesday because at first, she wanted to avoid approaching the police altogether. However, she later decided on registering the complaint because of the accused’s alleged unabated misdemeanours. She said that the senior police officer was not present at the police station the day they visited it to register the first information report (FIR). The Asian Age has a copy of the same.

When contacted, senior police inspector, Navghar police station, said, “The accused was arrested and is out on bail. The police will file a chargesheet against him soon.”

Meanwhile, Salim Chanaria, who is associated with the non government organisation Peace for Animals Welfare Association, and was present at the police station when the FIR was registered, said, “After an argument with the officer on duty who was present to register the FIR, he said it could be registered only after permission of senior police. We then drafted a three-page complaint signed by Ms Kamath, marking it to Navghar police station and the superintendent of police, Thane (rural), and left the police station.”