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Mumbai: An ‘us and them’ divide between pet lovers and others in a housing society in Kanjurmarg grew wider on Monday evening. Clashes between the two escalated leading to cross-FIRs on Tuesday at Parksite police station.
A video of an alleged fight between dog lovers and members of the housing society, at Runwal Forests, Kanjurmarg, was uploaded by citizen welfare group Mumbai North Central District forum (MNCDF). It shows women being verbally abused and a couple chased by a mob inside the society’s premises. Runwal Forests has eight high-rises with approximately 4500 residents.
According to one of the FIRs, dog feeder Diya Saha and her husband Raju Doharey were chased and attacked by a mob as they were feeding strays at their designated spot behind Tower-6. The other complaint Ninisha Devpura, wife of the secretary, Suryakumar, of Towers 5, 6 and 7 alleged she and her husband were assaulted with a knife by the Doharey.
“There are designated spots allocated by the housing society to feed dogs. When we arrived at one of the spots, we saw people walking with lathis. When my husband and I started feeding them, a mob of around 30-40 people gheraoed and questioned us. Some even called us thieves and said we were out to kidnap their children,” Diya told HT. The couple resides in Tower-8. She said they were asked to show their ID cards, and “were manhandled when we wished to fetch them from our home”.
“The mob chased us till our tower and kept beating us till the police arrived,” said Diya. She said she was beaten hard by a lathi on the back of her head. “Police filed an FIR against my husband and kept him in the lock up till 5am on Wednesday. He was released only when our lawyer intervened,” she said.
Based on her complaint, police attributed relevant sections of IPC against the alleged assaulters, prominently, punishment for unlawful assembly, punishment for rioting and rioting armed with deadly weapons.
Diya’s allegation was countered by the Devpuras. In her FIR, Ninisha alleged when she and her husband were down for a walk, they saw an unknown person walking. When Suryakumar questioned the person, he allegedly “attacked us with a knife and some spray, while another person was punched in the nose”.
“We are not aware of the details of the FIR against us, but we suspect the couple is not from our building. My wife and I were assaulted by the man (Raju Doharey). You have to visit our premises to understand the extent of stray menace,” said Suryakumar. “The spots to feed dogs were decided by the police and BMC at a time when the towers were sparsely populated. We have been requesting BMC and the builder reassess the spots, since the number of residents have increased over time.”
The counter-FIR was registered under relevant sections, prominently voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means and assault or use of force on a woman with an intent to outrage her modesty, under IPC.
Dinesh Pai, chairman of Towers 5, 6 and 7, said the society adheres to the AWBI guidelines of February 2015. “We have also requested the authorities to form an animal welfare committee and nominated two residents of the society. We have arranged a meeting on Sunday, following which the guidelines will be affixed under our towers,” said Pai. Pai emphasised, there have been 25 cases of dog bites and 100 attacks in the common area of the society, in less than a year.
“We are positive the conflict will be resolved with discussions. Many senior citizens have stopped going for walks here and children are not stepping out to play fearing dog bites,” he added.
Advocate Trivankumar Karnani, founder, MNCDF, said, “The aggression of the residents was unwarranted and the series of videos displays how an unlawful assembly caused a riot and the victims were mobbed as well as wrongfully restrained. Equally shocking is the Parksite police registering a fabricated, frivolous, malicious FIR against the victims.”
Despite multiple attempts, Vinayak Mer, senior PI of Parksite police station did not respond to HTs request for a comment.
Meet Ashar, Cruelty Case Division Legal Advisor and Manager, PETA India, said, “It is the responsibility of every housing society to designate feeding spots for community animals in consultation with the caregivers/ dog feeders, as per the mandate under Rule 20 of Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023. This will also help reduce man-animal conflict, cases of dog bites, etc.” He referenced a recent Bombay high court judgement which reiterated the rules which are “not open to a housing society to say it will not abide by the law”.
