delhi

Updated: Jul 24, 2018 10:06 IST

A 65-year-old man was arrested on Sunday after CCTV camera footage surfaced showing him allegedly assaulting a stray dog with a stick in northwest Delhi’s Majlis Park near Adarsh Nagar.

Police officials said they could not ascertain if the dog was alive as they were unable to track it down as of Monday evening.

The man told the police that he abandoned the animal around 300m away on the roadside after the assault. The incident took place outside the man’s house, the police said.

The CCTV footage from the neighbourhood shows a man dragging a dog with a chain around its neck. In the 54-second video recorded on Saturday morning, the man is seen asking another man to fetch him a stick from inside his house.

Once the second man hands him a stick, the elderly man starts attacking the dog. The other man and a hawker are seen standing nearby. The dog can be seen yelping and struggling to set itself free. The elderly man then drags the dog out of the video frame.

Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Aslam Khan said the man, Kanwal Tandon, was arrested after a case under section 429 (mischief by killing or maiming cattle) of the Indian Penal Code and section 11(1)(a) of the prevention of cruelty to animal act was registered against him.

“The FIR was registered on the complaint of Nisha Sood, an animal rights activist. We saw the video footage of the brutality against a stray dog and arrested Tandon. He was later released on bail,” said DCP Khan.

Tandon told us that he assaulted the dog because it bit him some days ago, a police officer associated with the case said.

“The man, however, failed to produce any medical documents to prove that the dog bit him. Also, he had not made any police call or complaint about any alleged animal bite,” the officer said, adding Tandon runs a printing press in north Delhi.

Sood, who claims to be associated with an animal welfare organisation, People for Animals, said one of Tandon’s neighbours had shared the video footage on her social media account and sought intervention.

“I was shocked after seeing the footage and filed a police complaint. We also spoke to Tandon’s neighbours and they claimed that he was assaulted animals in the past as well. The neighbours have given their statement to the police,” she said.