Residents of Daruwala Compound in Malad were left dumbfounded on Tuesday night when aman brutally assaulted a local stray dog.

He allegedly hammered the dog’s face with a stump, breaking his nose and fatally injuring his right eye.

“All Gopal did was bark at him while he was speeding on his bike. About 10 minutes later he came back with a stump and hit him... The dog could not even run away. He shoved the pointed end of the stump in Gopal’s nose and burst his eye,” a witness said.

“When we stopped him, he said, ‘now, he won’t dare bite anyone’, and walked away. This man is a goon. If he can do that to the dog, he can do the same to our kids too.”

About 25 people took the dog to a local vet, while a few went to the Malad police station to file a complaint. “The dog was in terrible shape when he was brought in; his nose, head and eye were battered. He had an internal haemorrhage in the right eye and was bleeding through the sinuses,” Neelima Paranjape, the vet, said. She said the dog was stable now but might never be able to use his eye again.

Saurabh Edwankar, the animal welfare officer who came to inspect the situation, said: “No one was ready to act as a witness. Without that, the police can’t do anything. In agreement with the residents, they let him go with a warning. This is a serious offence because the man apparently went home and returned to beat the dog. But people will have to testify against him if they want any action.”

Such an offence can fetch three to six months’ imprisonment. Avinash Jadhav, senior inspector of Malad police station, said there is no such complaint lodged in their police station.