Attack on strays: Police yet to file FIR, rights activists lodge second complaint

GURUGRAM: Police have not registered an FIR in the case of beating and abduction of strays dogs in a Sector 49 society even though two days have passed since the society’s RWA lodged a complaint in this regard.
Now, animal rights activists have also filed a complaint, demanding strict police action and an organised search for the missing dogs.
As many as 10 stray dogs in Uppal Southend housing society were beaten with sticks, captured and taken away in sacks by unidentified people, shows CCTV footage recorded on April 1.
Inspector Shahid Ahmed, the station house officer (SHO) at the Sector 50 police station, told TOI that police were investigating the case.
“We are asking various agencies, including Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) and NGOs if they have captured the dogs under the sterilisation programme. We cannot proceed further till we get a response. Moreover, they were stray dogs and we are proceeding accordingly,” Ahmed said.
However, animal rights activists claimed that the case’s investigating officer told them that the dogcatchers concerned worked with MCG. Meenakshi Rajagopalan, volunteer for NGO Umeed For Animals, also alleged that Ahmed asked them “if the police should file a FIR against the dogs for biting people”.
The complaint by animals rights activists, which was lodged online, seeks to invoke charges of criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence in the case. It demands action “for causing threat to life, personal liberty, use of derogatory and defamatory language, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation, violation of Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act, Animal Birth Control rules, etc.”