Uttarakhand Director General of Police (DGP) has ordered a probe against a constable for shooting a stray dog in the Kankhal area of Haridwar after he found the canine peeing on his motorcycle.
The incident in the broad daylight was witnessed by many locals on January 24. The residents approached an NGO, People for Animals (PFA) to raise the matter with police officials.
The DGP on Friday ordered the probe against the policeman after the NGO official met him. Now Haridwar SSP will conduct an inquiry into the matter.
“The constable, Vinod Chauhan, was apparently in an inebriated state when he fired at the dog hitting the animal in the leg. When locals objected, Chauhan began threatening them not to intervene. A number of locals, though, carried the injured dog to a government veterinary hospital where it is still recuperating,” Manavi Bhatt, a member of PFA, was quoted as saying.
Bhatt added, “It is not for the first time that the accused constable has abused the animals. In another incident sometime back, the constable was found to have stuffed a dog inside a jute bag. He then rode his bike with the bag tied behind it, leading to the dog’s death”.
A member of UAWD, Poonam Singh and the Animal Welfare Board of India, said, “This is quite a shocking incident. A policeman cannot fire bullets whenever he fancies. In fact, shooting is to be resorted to only in the rarest of rare instances when all other means of control have been exhausted”.
