An animal lover tracked down a man caught having sex with a dog, just on the basis of a video that went viral on Independence Day, and dragged him to the cops. He also tracked the dog down, and took her for a medical examination. If the medical report provides evidence of sexual assault, he will have a case to put the man behind bars for 10 years..., as opposed to a case of animal cruelty for which the fine is a mere Rs 50.

Vijay Rangare, an operations manager at Wipro and Kamothe resident, was one of the many people who saw a video of a young man abusing a dog and thrusting his genitals into her mouth.

Only, he traced the origin of the video and found that it was first posted by an acquaintance. He landed at her house and she told him the whole story: A group of friends, including her, had seen a man who worked in the dhaba across from her home in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, having sex with a female dog on August 14 and filmed him. They posted the video on social media and it went viral.

Rangare and his friend Navin Nadar, then tracked the man down: 22-year-old Munna Kumar who lives in Sector 4 of Kharghar and works as a waiter in Sandhu da Dhaba in the same area. The duo marched him to Kharghar police but cops were reluctant to file an FIR as they were unsure of the procedure.

(Munna Kumar)

They only obliged after PETA India, an animal rights organisation, reined in support from the highest echelons of the police force, sent a formal complaint and threatened legal action.

“Navi Mumbai's police commissioner, deputy police commissioner of Zone-II ( Panvel) and Kharghar police station's senior police inspector helped register the FIR under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It states that the rape of an animal by a human is a crime carrying a prison term of up to 10 years. The alleged perpetrator may have previously abused other animals sexually and could go on to attack a human in the same way,” said a PETA activist.

For The Love Of Dog Vijay Rangare saw a video of a young man abusing a dog and thrusting his genitals into her mouth. He traced the video to an acquaintance, who had filmed it near her house and posted it first on social media He tracked down the man, took him to police and escalated it to seniors when Kharghar police refused to file FIR

A case was also registered under Section 11(1) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Munna was arrested on Wednesday night and produced in court on Thursday, which remanded him to five days in police custody.

“Sexual attraction towards animals is fuelled by pornography,” says Sagar Mundada, a psychiatric at Health Springs. “A person engaging in bestiality usually does it out of lack of sex education, past trauma or due to a mental disorder. They are not even in a state to comprehend whether the partner is human or animal.”

“Most of the time police don't take any action due to lack of knowledge of the law, says Poonam Gidwani, founder of Save the Paws, an NGO at Andheri. “The fine for animal cruelty is only Rs 50, but punishment for unnatural sex is up to 10 years and it's a non-bailable offence. In the last six months, cruelty towards animal has doubled.”