25 December,2017 08:38 AM IST | Mumbai | Gaurav Sarkar
The resident of Washim district has been remanded to judicial custody; next hearing on January 4, 2018
Perpetrators of animal cruelty beware. In what is probably the first such instance in India, a court has denied bail twice to Pawan Dangar, a resident of Washim district, for mercilessly thrashing an injured langur to death. A video of Dangar mercilessly hitting the injured langur with a stick, then tying it upside down and later humiliating the dead monkey by slapping it around with a slipper, has gone viral on social media.
A grab from the video that shows Pawan Dangar thrashing the langur and then hanging it on a tree, where he further hit it with his slipper
Lawyers surprised too
"This is the first animal cruelty case in India wherein the accused has been sent to five days police custody," said Meet Ashar, Emergency Response Coordinator for PETA, who is an honorary animal welfare officer for the Animal Welfare Board of India. "Even in murder cases, perpetrators are usually sent to only 2-3 days police custody. We were amazed, and so were the lawyers, when the judge remanded him in five days of police custody."
Animal cruelty
Pointing out that although the norm was that the perpetrator of animal cruelty is let off on bail on the first hearing, there were few things different about this particular incident. "This was an animal cruelty case in which an injured animal was beaten to death-without any provocation-and then further abused and humiliated. This is rare. The langur was beaten with the stick nearly 80 times-even after it had died. This shows the mentality of the person. Even after the death of the langur, he hung it upside down and was hitting it with his slipper," said Ashar.
Heinous act is on video
According to Ashar, this shook the forest department officials, who had filed the preliminary offence report (POR) against the accused, and who vehemently objected to the bail plea on both occasions at the Judicial Magistrate First class (JMFC) court in Risod Taluka. The video of his heinous act has gone viral on social media and further put spotlight on the case, he added. The accused was first presented in court on Monday, when he was denied bail, and later produced in court on Friday, when the judge denied him bail for the second time and sent him to further judicial custody. The next hearing is on January 4, 2018.
