Vet’s leg fractured in attack by five over cat’s death

Pune: A 51-year-old veterinary surgeon’s right leg was fractured after five people abused and attacked him, and ransacked his clinic, accusing him of negligence resulting in the death of a pet cat.
The surgeon, Ramnath Dhage, is recuperating in a private hospital. He filed a complaint with the Hadapsar police on Sunday night. He said that a woman visited his clinic in Hadapsar around 7.20pm on Saturday, to treat her cat, who had been in a serious condition for six days.
“The pet was breathing with an open mouth with extreme difficulty and its heartbeat was feeble. The cat was also suffering from chest congestion and had murmuring,” Dhage told TOI. “I told the woman that we will get an X-ray and a 2D echo test to check the functioning of its heart.”
But the cat died soon after he collected a blood sample, Dhage said, adding: “I tried to revive the pet by giving an injection but in vain. The woman started screaming after I proclaimed the cat dead. She ran out and returned with four men after some time.”
“They abused, threatened and attacked me. They vandalized my clinic and also threatened to shut it down,” he said.
The veterinarian’s right ankle was fractured and dislocated in the attack. “I fixed the dislocated part and with the help of my assistant I visited a nearby police chowkey,” he said, adding that the police advised him to file a complaint after getting treated as he was in severe pain.
Senior inspector Arvind Gokule said a CCTV camera in the clinic had captured the attack. “We will seek legal opinion on invoking provisions of the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons Act and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2010, in the matter,” he said, adding: “For now, we have registered a case of unlawful assembly, rioting, causing grievous hurt and mischief.”