A parrot answering to the name Hariyal was taken into police custody last week after a woman reported it for verbal abuse. The victim, one Janabai Sakharkar, claimed that every time the bird laid eyes on her it would begin to hurl obscenities.

Police thoroughly interrogated Hariyal but could not get it to speak. Apparently they had forgotten that it was a bird and not a rat.

Prior to Sakharkar’s official complaint on 17 August she suspected her stepson Suresh Sakharkar of training the parrot, which belonged to neighbour Bhaurao Watekar, to commit verbal assaults. The Sakharkars have been embroiled in a dispute of inheritance, leaving no love lost between the two.

▼ Ms. Sakharkar



After unanswered complaints were made to Watekar, Sakharkar took the matter to the police. The authorities took Sakharkar’s mental well-being very seriously and took the bird into custody. However, when questioned on the scene, the bird refused to speak at all.

No matter how much the officers tried to elicit obscene language from Hariyal, it simply sat there making naught but the occasional random noise. They even brought in Ms. Sakharkar to try to trigger Hariyal’s verbal onslaught, but it just turned away and acted like it didn’t know who she was.

Not knowing what to make of this situation, but wanting to keep the peace, the police transferred Hariyal to the custody of the forestry department. And so he awaits his fate in a holding cell there—still refusing to speak.

Surely several mafia families would have expressed interest in adopting Hariyal by now?

Source: Times of India (English), Tokyo Sports Web, Hachima Kiko (Japanese)

Video & screenshots: YouTube/media pak1