Navi Mumbai: Belapur cops punish dog walker, tie up pet; family alleges harassment

Vijay Singh | TNN | Updated: May 4, 2020, 20:31 IST

The police personnel said that dog walking is not allowed during lockdown.

NAVI MUMBAI: A Belapur based family has alleged police harassment by the local cops over the issue of walking their pet close to their society. "On Sunday evening, our house help had taken our pet dog, Sam, for a walk close to our residence. However, some overenthusiastic cops stopped the dog walker and forced him to do sit ups on the road for violating the lockdown. At the same time, they also tied up Sam to a pole, which further terrified the animal and he started barking loudly,'' recalled Charu Satam.
When he rushed down to talk to the cops and rescue his pet, the police personnel stuck to their stand that dog walking is not allowed during lockdown.
"When my son, Parth Satam, came to know about this incident, he recalled that a few days earlier too the same cops had stopped him from walking our dog. Since he had tried to reason with them that they have to take the pet out to relieve him, the police seem to have become vindictive and therefore punished the dog walker and our pet on Sunday, which is rather petty since we are following all precautions and social distancing,'' said Satam.
Parth also wrote about this bitter experience the family had with the local police on Twitter.
When TOI contacted the Navi Mumbai police commissioner, Sanjay Kumar, on this topic, he messaged: "The pet owners must walk their dog inside their society till the lockdown. Even I have a pet and keep him inside the house.''
However, activist Arati Chauhan replied: "Often, the society members object if we walk our dogs inside, even though we clean up the poop. Also, many pets like to feel the earth, grass while walking out to relieve, which is not possible inside the society or in the house.''
Meanwhile, Satam is also planning to write to higher authorities about this incident, as he is rather disturbed with the high-handed manner in which the local policemen behaved with the dog walker and his pet.