Maneka Gandhi severs tainted Mumbai arm of her organisation

People for Animals Chairperson Maneka Gandhi has revoked its Mumbai Unit1 following middayrsquos report on how the unitrsquos head Lata Parmar and her team were found threatening and extorting money from pet parents across the city This comes after the police sent a notice to the booked accused who are yet to respond seeking their statements After middayrsquos expose on the extortion racket PFA units across the country were impactedWhen contacted by midday Gandhi refused to comment on the issue However in a post on Twitter she said Parmar and her team no longer work with PFA The post read ldquoIMPORTANT A decision has been taken to dissolve the People For Animals Mumbai Unit1 As on 15042022 the PFA Mumbai Unit 1 ceases to existrdquoDCP Vijay Patil told midday ldquoWe have registered the FIR and also called Lata Parmar and other accused many times for the statements but they are not responding We also sent them a second notice to be present at the police stationrdquoManeka Gandhi MP and chairman People For AnimalsVijay Rangare president of PFA Unit2 in Mumbai told midday ldquoThis FIR and the article on Lata Parmar has badly affected us I circulated a message to everyone stating that my unit is not connected with Lata Parmar and works separately from herrdquoHe added ldquoEarlier I used to work as an individual but later joined Maneka Gandhirsquos organisation Parmar had also prepared a group of 27 animal lovers and sent out a message that read lsquoBeware of these Animal Welfare peoplersquo She also sent the message to PFA chief Maneka Gandhi The message had gone viral in 2019 when I applied for PFA membership But I later realised that the people listed including Senior Inspector Sudhir Kudalkar genuinely work for animalsrdquo ldquoI immediately called Maneka Gandhi and she said the list was not genuine She also gave me an offer to work with Parmar but I refused My team of 25 members works for animals I verified the backgrounds of all people before letting them joinrdquo Rangare further saidLata Parmar and her team with a Dalmatian dog and his caretaker right in ThaneAn animal lover on the condition of anonymity told midday ldquoThe terrorism of Lata Parmar increased in the city and in just two years she got the post of president She is not only harassing and extorting people but also harassing animal lovers and activists in the city She wants all the credit even if she is not involved Parmar also interferes in our work while rescuing the animals We are happy with Maneka Gandhirsquos decision Our work is to help the animals and stop animal crueltyrdquoAn animal lover who runs NGO Salim Charania and had filed a writ petition in the high court against Parmar for misusing her power and filing 55 false complaints against him at various police stations said ldquoIn 2020 the raid was conducted at my house in Vasai where I kept stray dogs for allegedly breeding dogs and selling them However the police did not find anything against me Parmar targeted me as my NGO was working in the market She used to call the police and Maneka Gandhi to complain against me VVMC doctors also gave me a clean chit Then I filed a writ petition in the high court against her The police should take the strictest action against herrdquoVijay Rangare president of PFA Unit2 in MumbaiA victim Dr Dattatray Bhausaheb Raje from Kalyan said ldquoMy clinic in Kalyan was shut down after Lata Parmar and her team in December 2021 informed Tilak Nagar police station that I was running a racket of breeding dogs at my clinic They even got Maneka Gandhi and BMC officers involved The cops filed the case but did not arrest me But the civic body shut down my clinic Helping animals isnot a crimerdquoAssistant doctor Kuldeep Mukane a victim said ldquoIn January we performed a surgery on a cat After a month the owner came to us complaining that the cat had an infection At that time Lata Parmar had demanded Rs 1 lakh from us to not register a complaint She also approached Gandhi and got Anchole police station to file a case against usrdquo27No of members in Parmarrsquos team