BALURGHAT: A complaint was lodged at Raiganj police station in North Dinajpur after a youth had allegedly beaten a street dog to death on Wednesday night. Receiving complaint from a Raiganj-based animal welfare organisation, police initiated a probe against the accused, Ashapurno Mazumdar.
Police said the body of the dog has been sent for an autopsy to a state-owned government animal
hospital.
Mazumdar resides at
Sudarshanpur in Raiganj.
He is a garage mechanic.
Local sources said Raiganj's Sudarshanpur locality is dominated by street dogs and recently some pedestrians were attacked by them following which Mazumdar had thrashed one of the street dogs to death on
Wednesday night.
Hearing the incident, some members of the animal welfare organisation,
North Dinajpur Peoples for Animal (NDPA), reached the spot and recovered the dog's corpse and registered a written complaint against Mazumdar.
A non-bailable charge has been brought against the accused for the offence,
it is learnt.
Goutam Tantia, the secretary of NDPA said: "None can harm any animal. The youth had done a criminal offence. We urged the police to take stringent actions
against him."
However, Mazumdar said: "While on my way back home on Wednesday night from the garage, the dog attacked me. The area is in clutch of street dogs, particularly at night. Some locals were recently attacked by them as well. Fearing hydrophobia, I thrashed the dog with a stick and left the place. Later, I learnt the dog died."
"What I did was nothing but to defend myself,"
he added.