Representative image

CHANDIGARH: A pet dog brutally killed the 52-year-old caretaker of a farmhouse in Balheri village of Panipat on Sunday morning. The guard dog of Rottweiler breed kept attacking and eating his victim’s body for over one hour even as hapless police personnel tried to drive him away. Police had a tough time shooing the enraged dog away and taking the possession of the dead body.

Even after the police finally removed the body, it took them four hours to finally catch the dog. The pet, called Tiger by its owners, is in police custody now. The animal is three-year-old.

The gruesome incident took place at the farm house owned by Karnal resident Hardeep Singh alias Billu, who had kept the dog to guard the place. The victim, Mani Ram, was a farm labourer and worked as the caretaker of the farmhouse. He used to take care of the dog for the past one year. It is not known what provoked the animal to attack him.

Preliminary investigations revealed that around 5.30am, Mani came to the farm house and was about to start the work. He decided to chain the dog fearing it could attack other farm labourers. As he made an attempt to tie the dog to its usual place, the Rottweiler attacked him.

The dog kept biting him again and again. Meanwhile, other people came in and called the local police. A police team reached the farm at 6am. Dog was so aggressive that it started attacking all those who tried to get close to the dead body, which was lying in a pool of blood.

SHO of Sadar police station, ASP Chander Mohan , said that the dog had been taken into custody for the medical examinations. The victim’s dead body has been sent to PGIMS Rohtak for the forensic examination.

“We are in the process of getting the beast medically examined about its general condition. So far as the victim’s body is concerned, initially we had sent it to Panipat Civil Hospital. However, they had no expertise in conducting autopsy of a victim of animal attack, we shifted body to PGIMS Rohtak. Will decide what action to take after we receive the both reports,’’ said ASP Chandermohan.

He admitted there was an inordinate delay in shifting of the dead body. “Firstly, this was the rare incident and generally cops don’t have equipment to deal with such a situation. We did not want to kill the dog either so we had make extra efforts to get the body. Secondly, the victim’s family wanted to see the dead body, hence we did not shift till their arrival, he added.

