Ahmedabad: Dog bites neighbours, owner can't leave state!

AHMEDABAD: Nearly six years after he left his pet dog unleashed putting his neighbours vulnerable to canine attack, Bhadresh Pandya (49) is paying the price. In fact, the pet owner finds himself on a short leash with the city sessions court restricting his movement as a bail condition.
In January, Pandya was handed down one-year imprisonment by a metropolitan court for his pet's attacks on his neighbours. After he was punished, he challenged his conviction and applied for bail.
In a recent order, additional sessions judge R S Purani granted bail to Pandya on furnishing Rs 10,000 bond. However, the court placed a condition on Pandya for his freedom - he cannot travel beyond Gujarat limits. He would require prior permission from the court to travel outside the state. "The applicant shall not leave the local limits of Gujarat without prior permission of this court," the court order reads.
A resident of Ashapuri Society in Ghodasar, Pandya was booked by Isanpur police in 2014 under sections 289, 337 and 338 of the IPC after his dog 'Shakti' seriously hurt people and created panic in the neighbourhood.
The FIR was lodged after the canine attacked three children and an adult, Avinash Patel. The complainant had said that he had fallen down due to dog's attack and suffered multiple fractures. Before that, the dog had bit Patel's son Jay, his nephew Takshil and one more kid named Vyom Kayasth.
Pandya had pleaded 'not guilty' and faced the trial, finally to be convicted six years later. He urged the magisterial court to be lenient and grant him benefit of probation, but the court wanted to set an example and rejected his request for probation. Pandya has now questioned the verdict in the sessions court. His advocate D K Jain said that one of the grounds is that the FIR was lodged at a belated stage in this case.