Monday, July 6, 2009 . Page 24 It is famous that if police get wind of any criminal activity, they never miss a chance to nab the accused. But in the case of animals, particularly horses, which died about a month ago, there has been no real effort. A Mumbai-based NGO, working for the welfare of animal has alleged that, in this case, it has provided all the evidence against the owner of the animals, who can actually be held directly responsible for their death. However, the police are yet to make an arrest.
On June 14, around 2.45 pm, people saw two horses fall off the Andher flyover. After seeing that no one came forward to claim the animals, the Mumbai based NGO took the initiative and filed a complaint with the Andheri Police Station.
The NGO also started its own investigation and found that both the horses belonged to a person named Robert.
This was confirmed by his neighbours, who said that Roberts two horse were seen around in the area after June 14. They had come to know that Robert had later buried one of the horses, while one was admitted to a hospital where it died.
Armed with all this evidence, Sunish Subramanian, founder member of PAWS-Mumbai, who is also the complainant in the case, approached the investigating officers, and offered to help them with the investigations. Even after evidence was provided against Robert, the police had not taken any initiative to interrogate or nab him.
Subramanian is also alleging that some people, mostly youngsters, used to make the horses race along the western Express Highway. The young boys usually chose Sundays for such races.
The Andheri Police have filed an FIR under Section 11 A (1) (2) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. When contacted, to A.A. Sonawane, Investigation Officer on the case told this newspaper, “We have got information about Robert, but before taking any further steps in the matter, we wanted to have proper and irrefutable evidence in the case.”
