3 arrested for cruelty to stray dog

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 30

Three days after videos of cruelty on a stray dog in Sector 48 went viral, the UT police swung into action and booked the four accused in the case today. Three of them were arrested and later granted bail while the fourth is out of the city.

The police arrested VK Bansal, VP Saini and Umesh, while the fourth accused, Brijesh Kaushal, is said to be in Bhubhaneshwar and will be arrested on his return to the city. All the four were booked under relevant sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. They were later granted bail.

Out of those booked, Bansal, Saini and Kaushal are residents of Kendriya Vihar Society in Sector 48 while Umesh is a watchman who also joined them in the act of cruelty to the dog, the police said.

The arrest of the three followed protests by animal lovers and animal rights activists across the tricity today who demanded that the persons who committed the brutal act of beating a stray dog, and then hanging him from a tree, be booked.

Inspector Ranjodh Singh, SHO of the Sector 49 police station, said the incident occurred on Wednesday evening when the dog reportedly bit Brijesh Kaushal. The four of them then beat up the dog and tied him upside down from a tree. The dog was then dumped in a sack and taken in an Alto car and dropped near Aerocity.

Some children playing in the vicinity recorded a video of the dog being hung from a tree and posted it on social media. Enraged animal lovers then submitted a complaint to the police following which action was taken today.

‘A video shows cops beating the dog, why no action against them?’

Yashvir Singh, a PU law student, said  one of the videos captured also shows policemen beating the dog, yet no effort had been made to identify and book those policemen. “We are demanding an amendment in the FIR as some of the policemen are hand in glove with the accused and are seen beating the dog in the video,” he said.

‘Search on for the dog, we pray he is alive’

Nandini Kakkar, a member of the Animal Welfare Board of India, on whose complaint the case was lodged, said they went to the area near Aerocity where some persons had seen the four dumping the dog from a car. “We will go to the place again on Sunday to look for the dog. The children in the area looked after the dog and provided him with food and water every day, as it was weak. We are praying that the dog is alive,” she said.

A bigger protest today

Over 100 animal lovers who saw the video on a social networking site converged at the Kendriya Vihar Society in Sector 48 this afternoon condemning the incident and demanding the arrest of the accused. A law student, Yashvir Singh, stated that they now planned to hold a bigger protest on Sunday and expected around 2,000 residents from the tricity to participate.