Puppy dies after being run over in Mulund

Mumbai: The police have initiated inquiries into the death of a stray puppy, who was allegedly run over by a Mulund resident’s car last week.

According to Palka Sejpal, a resident of Dreamland Society, the incident occurred on December 7. Ms. Sejpal takes care of three stray puppies, all of them two-months-old, in her locality, and on December 7, she found one of them missing.

She made inquiries in the area and found footage from a nearby CCTV camera, which captured a Toyota Etios turning into the lane where the puppies were sleeping and driving straight at them without even attempting to avoid hitting them.

While two of them manages to spring away, the third was caught under the car’s wheels and was seen thrashing about in pain before going limp.

“I later found that the security guard, after getting complaints of foul smell due to the puppy’s blood, called a rag picker and told him to throw it in a dustbin without even checking if it was alive,” Ms. Sejpal said.

Using the number plate of the car, Ms. Sejpal said that she identified the owner of the vehicle as Jiten Dhiman. She then contacted animal rights activist Nirali Koradia and sought her help.

Ms. Koradia tweeted the CCTV clip to the Mumbai Police, and filed a web complaint on Monday. She later received a call from the police informing her that her complaint had been forwarded to the Mulund police.

The Mulund police, according to Ms Koradia, took the entire day to respond in spite of the matter being referred to them on Monday.

Police inspector Balasaheb Ghavate claimed, “We only received the email on Tuesday evening, and are looking into the matter. Mr. Dhiman will be called on Wednesday for inquiries.”