In at least the third case of dog rape in Mumbai in the past six months, the police last night arrested a 68-year-old man for raping a community dog in Juhu Galli area of Andheri West after being approached by an animal welfare NGO with a video of the act.
Tushar Gogawale of DN Nagar police station said that the man Ahmed Shahi is being produced before a court for custody and that the police took note of a video of the act they were shown by an NGO and arrested him.
The arrest happened last night after Vijay Mohanani of NGO Bombay Animal Rights received a call from a person who said he resided in Andheri West at Juhu Galli and informed Mohanani that a person who lives in his vicinity was sexually abusing dogs in the neighbourhood. He sent Mohanani a video in which the man was seen raping a dog. The person said the video was shot by him in December last year. The person further told him that the man would sexually assault different dogs in the vicinity. He said he had told Shahi not to repeat the act, but found him still continuing and hence informed the NGO. Mohanani approached the police station with the video.
The animal activist said the accused is a vegetable vendor in the area and is well off. “Persons from Shahi’s family had beat up the person who had shot the video and broken his phone,” he said. Luckily, the video was still available on some device.
The man is ironically a local feeder to whom people have donated dog and cat food. At night he would sexually assault the dogs he regularly fed by luring them with food. Since the animal had a relation of trust and loyalty with him, she would not attack him. “We will be trying to identify the dogs in the area who have been sexually assaulted and get them medical aid,” said Mohanani.
On 23 October last year, a community dog called Noorie was raped in a Powai mall with a 11-inch wooden stick inserted in her private parts and had been in a critical condition with serious injuries. The accused had raped her multiple times and said he inserted the rod to kill his child which he thought she was pregnant with. Again in October last year, a man was caught in Nerul railway station’s CCTV camera raping a dog. Arrests have taken place in both cases.
