A man poisoned 20 dogs to death on the night of 6th May 2016 at the Mira Road locality. A CCTV footage was found from one of the buildings that shows a man feeding dogs at night. An FIR has been lodged at the Navghar police station by the residents of the locality.
People of the locality took initiative and conducted their own investigation with the help of an NGO and narrowed down the suspect list to a man named Shamlal Badal – a 60 year-old owner of a pig slaughterhouse. They also recorded a video where Badal allegedly confessed to killing of the dogs.
Shubhang G, a resident of Golden Nest, Phase 6 said, “When I reached the spot, I saw around six dogs who seemed to be seriously unwell. Their eyes were popping out and they collapsed one by one.”
He hurriedly took one of the dogs to a nearby vet clinic, but by the time the doctor came, the dog had died. He urged the residents of his building to check the CCTV footage and found an unidentified man with a gunny bag, feeding dogs the previous night.
The police has not been able to identify the accused. So, they sought assistance from Mr. Salim Charania, a local detective and president of NGO Pawa. He looked into the matter and checked the site, where he found the gunny bag which the unidentified man used to carry the poisonous food for the dogs. From his first observation, he suggested that the bag smelled like heavy pesticides and meat. The bag was handed over to the police for further testing.
Mr Charania added that Badal’s appearance matches with that of the man on CCTV footage but since the face on the footage was not clear, police couldn’t take any action against him. Therefore, in order to gather more evidence in the case, Mr Charania along with the residents accosted Badal, who then confessed to the crime.
“We have recorded a video of him admitting to poisoning the dogs. While he refuted the allegations in front of police, he later confessed to the crime in front of us and apologized for it,” said Mr Charania.
The video was handed over to the police on 9th May 2016. Residents await action over the 20 dogs poisoned to death. The police is yet to investigate over the evidence collected by the residents.
Source: Deccan Chronicle
UPDATE: 13 May 2016
Police confirmed that Shyamlal Badal is the same suspect which is seen in CCTV Footage given by Pawa India Team, Police arrived at Address of Shyamlal to arrest him, but he admitted himself in to a hospital to avoid arrest. Police have informed doctors to inform them before releasing him. He will be arrested as soon as doctor inform police about his release.
UPDATE: 16 May 2016
The accused Shamlal Badal was finally arrested and produced in court on Friday morning. He was granted bail with a fine of Rs. 1000, the same evening.
“He was in our custody till Friday. We produced him in court and he was granted bail with a fine of Rs1,000. Once we get the complete report, we will file a charge sheet.” said Investigation officer BS Dabade.
The remaining carcasses of the 15 dogs poisoned by the culprit were sent for autopsy. The results are awaited!
PAWA president Salim Charania said, “We are unhappy that he is out on bail. However, we know that we have strong evidence against him and hence are not worried about our case. We won’t let him get out of this so easily.”