Days-old pups dumped in nullah, left to die in Nalasopara

The puppies after they were reunited with their mother. Pics/ Hanif Patel

Three men, including a security in-charge and a flat owner at Agarwal Nagari housing complex in Nalasopara East, have been booked for throwing nine puppies into a drain, killing one of them. The other eight puppies were rescued 24 hours later and reunited with their mother. On Sunday, the Tulinj police booked flat owner Shivam Singh, security in-charge Arjun Rai and sanitary staff Rajendra S for cruelty to animals Act.

The complainant Mitesh Jain, 38, a district welfare officer at Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), said, "I received a call from an animal feeder Nisha Nikam on November 2 who told me that nine puppies -- barely 20 days old, were missing from the society complex. I rushed to the spot and started looking for the puppies with my team."

"After 24 hours, we managed to rescue eight of the puppies as one of them was found dead near the drain, about 100 metres away from Agarwal Nagar building," Jain said.

When Jain and his team reached Agarwal Nagari to enquire how and why the puppies landed inside the drain, the chairman and nearly three dozen residents of the complex confronted the AWBI personnel.

"I asked the sanitary staff Rajendra, as Nikam had a strong suspicion that he had thrown the puppies into the drain. Rajendra told us that the security in-charge Arjun Rai had told him to dump the puppies away from the society. When I asked Rai, he said Singh told him to throw them away," Jain said.

The puppy that died

"We demanded CCTV footage of November 1 between 1-5pm but the chairman refused to give it to us. During our investigation, we got to know that Singh had asked Rai to dump these puppies in a drain to keep their society dog-free. We went to Tulinj police station and registered an FIR against the trio," said Jain, who added that such cases are on the rise in Palghar district.

Around 15 days ago, a similar case was registered at Manikpur police station against three people Pramod Cheriyoor Veedu, Krishna Yadav and Vinod Dhakal of Niharika Apartment in Vasai West. "These accused had thrown six month-old puppies into a drain but after rescuing them, we managed to reunite them with their mother," said Jain, who added, "It is illegal to relocate puppies from their birthplace as it amounts to cruelty."

However, no arrest has been made in either of the cases so far.

A senior officer of Vasai division of Palghar police said investigations in both the cases were underway.

Woman abused, assaulted for feeding strays

Harassing animal lovers and those who feed strays seem to be fast becoming the norm these days. Recently, a woman who was feeding strays was abused and assaulted by a society member in a well-known locality in Thane. The incident happened in the parking area of Neelkanth Heights where both the victim and accused have been living for many years. When the woman was feeding a sick dog one day, the alleged accused, Gorakhnath Vaidya, came and started clicking pictures of her without her consent. When she objected and called her husband, Vaidya allegedly started hurling abuse at her.

The Vartak Ngar police who registered a case in the matter said, "When the victim's husband told Vaidya to let him check his phone and delete pictures of his wife if any, Vaidya became furious. Vaidya then touched the women inappropriately, and also made obscene gestures. He then passed may sexually explicit comments. The entire episode has been recorded in the CCTV footage of the society.

The accused had allegeldy restricted everyone in the society from feeding stray dogs, which is in violation of Animal Welfare Rights. The woman has finally lodged an FIR post the molestation incident at the Vartak Nagar Police Station against Vaidya.

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Age in days of the nine puppies

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