A ‘suspicious looking’ group of men spotted in closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage is suspected to be behind the death of 25 stray animals in Ambarnath, local activists said on Wednesday.
Eighteen dogs and seven cats were found dead in Kansai area in Ambarnath (East) in the early hours of Tuesday, which the Shivaji Nagar police are investigating.
Satyajit Burman, an activist from the area, said he had scanned CCTV footage of the area along with the police. “We could see a suspicious-looking gang in the footage. We had also seen a drone flying around residential buildings in the locality at around 3 a.m. around 10 days ago. All these factors lead us to believe that a highly resourceful gang of burglars is at work,” Mr. Burman, founder of Ambarnath Citizens Forum, said.
According to Mr. Burman, the strays could have been killed as their sounds would have alerted residents when the burglars struck.
Recalling the incident, Mr. Burman said, “When we first reached the spot we only found four dogs but upon searching the locality, we found 18 dogs and seven cats dead,” Mr. Burman said.
The Shivaji Nagar police have registered a case of killing or maiming an animal against unknown persons under the Indian Penal Code. “The strays seem to have been given some sort of food mixed with poison. The motive behind the crime is still not clear. The investigation is still in its primary stage and we are gathering footage from all the CCTV cameras in the locality,” said senior police inspector Manjeet Singh Bagga. Shivaji Nagar police station.