Pet owner takes on RPF cops for 'harassing' her dogs and their walker

The cops from the Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Monday allegedly behaved insensitively with a SoBo resident’s two pets and their walker

The cops from the Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Monday allegedly behaved insensitively with a SoBo resident's two pets and their walker. The woman claimed in a Facebook post that the RPF cops subjected the dog walker to 'ludicrous charges' and also made her innocent pets suffer for no reason.

Samira and her dog James

Marine Lines resident Samira Major posted on Facebook on Monday that her pet dogs James and Beauty and the dog walker Andrew, were out on their regular morning walk outside Churchgate station yesterday. Andrew stopped outside the station with the dogs for sometime to have some tea, like he does every morning.

A RPF cop from the station allegedly approached Andrew and told him he was infringing on railway property. After Andrew argued with him, the cop took him and the dogs to the station. He asked Andrew to pay a fine. Since Andrew did not have enough money, the cops insisted on sending him to the Mumbai Central station to get the magistrate to approve a lesser fine.

They took Andrew and the dogs to Mumbai Central on a local train. There, they tied the dogs outside while Andrew had to go to the court and pay the fine, after which he was released. The pets had to stay there with no water and no shade, her post stated. After this, Andrew, who had no money and phone, had to walk back to Marine Lines with the two dogs.

Samira, who was worried since Andrew and the pets had not returned, had already shared their pictures on Facebook and appealed to friends to help her find them. Many of her friends also tweeted about the incident. Samira was so worried that she went to the extent of announcing a reward of Rs 10,000 to find them.

After Andrew got home, he narrated the entire incident to Samira. Angry at the insensitivity of cops, she wrote a long post on the incident, after updating her friends through Facebook that the missing ones were home.

Her post stated, "Disgusted by the LUDICROUS charge he was arrested on. When checked with the Churchgate RPF and the Mumbai Central RPF, we found no written record of his arrest. Will be taking action against this. Also getting a tracking chip for James — would advise ALL PET PARENTS TO DO THE SAME."

She added, "You never realise how bad it is until it happens to you. Cannot explain how devastating it is to lose your dog and find yourself completely helpless to do anything about it."

'Will look into it'
When mid-day asked the Western Railway senior divisional security commissioner Anand Vijay Jha about the incident, he said, "I will look into the matter and if any RPF constable or personnel is found guilty, he will be suspended."

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