A 22-year-old man in Chennai has been accused of 'sexually abusing' a stray dog in Nandanam Extension by an animal rights activist. In the wee hours of Sunday, animal activist and resident in the locality, Meenatchi Sundaram, was appalled to see a man allegedly committing bestiality on a dog. However, by the time he walked down to the spot, the man had fled.
“It was my neighbour’s wife’s birthday and so we were gathered on their terrace. At around 1.30 am is when we saw this man violating the dog and we also heard it whimpering. Later in the morning when we spoke to our neighbours, we realised that few others too in the area had witnessed similar instances of the man loitering around in the middle of the night and sexually abusing street dogs,” alleges Meenatchi.
When Meenatchi shared the instance with Sai Vignesh of Almighty Animal Care Trust, Sai approached Saidapet police on Tuesday to file a complaint against the man, who works at a local tea shop. But his complaint was not taken immediately as the police said that they needed eyewitness to register a complaint, apart from the CCTV footage they submitted.
“The police told me in the footage it appears as if the man is only petting the dog. Meenatchi accompanied me on Wednesday to register his statement as the eyewitness,” says Sai Vignesh. “When we saw the footage later that day, we saw that the ordeal lasted for over half an hour,” adds Meenatchi.
Sai tells us that they had wanted the complaint to be registered under section 377 of the IPC (unnatural sex) that entails imprisonment up to a period of 10 years in addition to fine and under section 294 of the IPC (obscene acts and songs in public places) with imprisonment up to three months and fine. However, the FIR has now been registered under section 429 (punishment for killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering useless an animal of the value of Rs 50 and up) and section 11 (i) k (animal cruelty) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Police have arrested the accused and he has been sent to the magistrate court for remand.