68-year-old serial rapist abused more than 30 dogs in Mumbai, #SorrySheru trends on Twitter

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A vegetable vendor in Andheri has been arrested by DN Nagar police for sexually abusing more than 30 dogs as per video evidence collected by a resident.
• The complainant, Vijay Mohanani, runs the NGO, Bombay Animal Rights based in Peddar Road and has sought the strictest action against the accused.
• Netizens trend “#SorrySheru” on Twiiter and the incident led to outrage on social media by the animal lovers seeking attention to the urgent need for providing safety to stray animals.

INTRODUCTION

In Maharashtra, a vegetable vendor has been arrested for bestiality after it was found that he had tortured nearly 30 stray dogs. The accused named, Ahmed Shahi was secretly filmed by an animal rights NGO, Bombay Animal Rights (BAR) where the man was found luring a dog in Andheri West before raping it. The video was then submitted to the cops who launched an investigation into the incident. Questioning of the accused revealed that he used to tempt dogs and cats by giving them meat late at night and raped them while they ate. With the number of such rapes increasing, the NGO has requested all feeders to provide safety to animals.

FURTHER DETAILS

The complainant, Vijay Mohanani told that the received a call at mid-day Tuesday from Aslam Shaikh, a resident of Juhu Gully where he narrated him the entire incident and also sent him a video from December 2020 where Shahi was seen raping a dog. Mohanani was in a state of deep shock and immediately informed DN Nagar police.

During the interrogation the man revealed that he has raped 30-40 dogs in the area by luring them with food between 3am-4am. Senior Inspector Bharat Gaikwad said, “Shahi was held from his residence late on Tuesday night. The date of the video is not confirmed yet and we have sent it to our technical experts. The accused has been remanded in police custody.”

The accused has been booked under Sections 377 (unnatural sex) and 429 (harming animals) and section (11)(1)(a) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 1960 after being produced in a local court and sentenced to two days of police custody.

This bone chilling incident shook the entire country and was condemned by everyone on social media sites and the hashtag “#SorrySheru” has over 70,000 tweets while Ahmed has over 95,000 tweets to it and the topic ‘dogs’ of has over 1480,000 tweets in it. Some examples of animal lovers urging the authorities to ensure the safety of strays can be seen below-

Rape, cruelty, abuse of animals is equally inhuman & criminal as of people.

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 fines a person Rs.50/- for animal abuse! Is this enough for offenders like Ahmed?

This law needs to change & change NOW! #SorrySheru
— Charu Pragya (@CharuPragya) March 15, 2021
Buddy from US, #SorrySheru getting international support pic.twitter.com/rb0PSwbvig
— Lala (@Lala_The_Don) March 15, 2021
Not women, not children, not cows, not goats, not even dogs! Nobody is safe in "their" ideal world! #SorrySheru
— Nehal Tyagi (नेहल त्यागी) (@nehaltyagi08) March 15, 2021

SOME SIMIALR INCIDENTS

• A nine-year-old female dog Noorie was raped in Galleria Mall, Hiranandani Powai in Oct 2020.

She was living in this vicinity for 8-9 years and was found brutally raped and profusely bleeding from her private parts. According to a report by Free Press Journal, Devi Sheth, a software engineer took her to an NGO for treatment. An 11-inch wooden rod was found inserted in her private parts which butchered her internal organs. Geeten Dudani, trustee of Bombay Animal Rights (BAR) registered a complaint in Powai police station against unknown persons. An offence has been registered under Sec 377 of the IPC (unnatural intercourse) and two sections under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA). Geeta Dudani said that, “The only difference between a pet and a dog like Noorie is that she does not have a home. But she was well cared for by people in the area - fed, vaccinated and given medical treatment,”.He added that more than one person had to be involved in the crime as the dog would have tried to flee or defend herself when assaulted in the brutal manner. Her being a friendly dog made her a soft-target unfortunately, he said and called it “nothing less than the Nirbhaya case - only there it was a human involved and here she is a dog.”

• A female dog, Tara, was raped by a 65-year-old near Nerul railway station. The incident was revealed when a shopkeeper was scanning his CCTV camera footage.

FIR was filed against the 65-year-old man under named as Mahendra D Pawar who was a daily wage worker and used to sleep inside the station complex where the shops and eateries were located. During week-long investigation it was found that the accused would often loiter around the station complex at night and then drink alcohol before sexually abusing the female dog. FIR was filed against him under the IPC section 377 and section 11(1) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act,1960.

CONCLUSION

Animal abuse is an inhumane and heinous crime and one must intervene if he/she witnesses animal cruelty and report it to the police and other authorities. It’s high time that stricter laws for animal protection should be implemented. Harsher penalties will lead to fewer cruelty cases and a much stronger animal welfare system which is the need of the hour. Mahatma Gandhi rightly said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

In Animal Welfare Board of India vs. A. Nagaraja Supreme Court gave wider meaning to the term ‘life’ under Article 21 and extended the ‘right to dignity and fair treatment’ to animals. The very landmark case of Karnal Singh and Ors. v. State of Haryana is a breakthrough judgement in which the judiciary touched the matter of animal rights in the purview of Fundamental Rights. The case before the court was not just a regular civil case of breaking the laws or doing any act which is abstinent to be done by the law but was involving the major issue of animal rights that are being subdued by nearly everyone without any guilt towards mankind or law.
In the present scenario of COVID-19 the vaccine trials are done on animals and the kind of environment that the humans are providing to them is terrifying and traumatising and this additional torturing on them where humans sexually abuse them raises a huge question on the humanity which is found to be lost with the prevailing cruelty on innocent creatures of mother earth. Although, there are great animal protection laws in India there is a need to properly regulate them into the ground level.