Mumbai: Borivli building builds wall, trapping 10 dogs inside

The wall that locked the dogs inside the passage

Three members of a housing society in Borivli West have been booked by the MHB Colony police for allegedly constructing a wall overnight and trapping around 10 stray dogs inside. The case came to the fore after Purnima Shetty, 48, a feeder, found the dogs near Aquara Grande society missing when she went to feed them around 4 am on Monday. In her complaint, Shetty said that after looking around for a while, she found them trapped behind a wall that was constructed in a day by the society members.

Purnima Shetty with the stray dogs

Shetty told mid-day, "Around 10 of the 20 stray living in the vicinity of the temple and Aquara Grande were missing. When I went to the basement, which had a small passage-like space where the strays used to rest, I saw that a new wall was built within a day. I called out for the dogs and heard them barking from behind the wall." She then called the watchman and asked for a light but he did not cooperate. "I called two of my colleagues, Lata Kulkarni and Shital Mahatre, and also informed the police. We broke the wall with a hammer and rescued the dogs and their puppies. All the dogs would have died had they not been rescued in time," she added.

Mahatre said, "When we asked the society management about the wall and enquired if they had BMC permission for the same, they could not show us any such documents. This means that this wall was built illegally. We will also approach the BMC over this." She added, "Whatever has been done is a well-planned conspiracy with the intention of killing the dogs. Hence, we have registered a complaint against the building management."

When mid-day contacted the manager, he said the incident was unintentional and unfortunate and added that the labourers who built the wall were not aware that the dogs were inside. "We have registered a case against three society members under relevant sections of the Animal Cruelty Act and section 34 (common intention) of the IPC. No arrest has been made yet. We are probing the matter," said an officer from MHB police station.

4 am
When the feeder found the dogs missing