25 August,2014 08:26 AM IST | | Shirish Vaktania
Dahisar police had refused to register an FIR in the accident that occurred three months ago; after reading a mid-day report on a similar incident, the owner approached an NGO to help her out
Persistence has paid off for a pet owner in Dahisar who had been fighting for justice after her Labrador was killed by a speeding car. With assistance from an NGO, the woman managed to get the Dahisar police to register a case against the driver of the car. She was spurred on in the cause after she read an article in mid-day, in which a BEST bus driver had been arrested for killing a dog.
The car that allegedly crushed Chinki, the pet dog of Borivli-based Gauri Marathe
According to Gauri Marathe, who had a seven-year-old female Labrador named Chinki, the incident occurred on May 19 this year. The duo were out for walk at 11.45 pm on Bhinav Road in Dahisar (East) when suddenly, a car crushed the animal under its wheels, killing it on the spot.
Instead of stopping, the driver sped away. Marathe, who is a resident of Borivli (East), noted down the car's licence plate number: MH-02-BZ-5310. She then informed the Dahisar police, but the cops allegedly refused to entertain her complaint.
New hope
Dismayed at the apathy, Marathe had all but given up when mid-day published a report on a similar case on July 10, in which a BEST bus driver had been arrested for running over a dog. Encouraged, Marathe approached Salim Charania, president of Peace for Animals Welfare Association (PAWA), an NGO in Kandivli, for help. After meeting Charania, the NGO gathered evidence and submitted it to the cops.
mid-day's July 10 report on the BEST driver's arrest for killing a dog
According to the police, the youth driving the car was identified as Prasan Varekh. The case has been registered under sections 428 (mischief by killing or maiming animal), 279 (rash driving) of the IPC, Section 184 (driving dangerously) of the Motor Vehicles Act and Section 11(1)(a) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Said Charania, "When the incident had taken place, the duty officer in Dahisar police station was PSI Shingade and he is responsible for all this. Even the officers should be punished for not taking the case." The pet's owner Marathe said, "I lost my Chinki but I want justice. The police didn't register a case at the time of the incident. The accused should be punished as per the law."
