Rights groups, police rescue 56 cats from filthy Pune apartment
Pune police and animal rights groups rescued 56 cats from a dirty apartment in Kondhwa, Pune, on Tuesday. Two sisters, residents of a neighbouring flat, were booked for keeping the animals in unhygienic and cruel conditions.
The rescuers said the cats, many of whom were pregnant, injured and diseased, were living in a flat covered with faeces. Police said they had received several complaints from residents of the building about a foul smell.
Pune police said accused Dipika Kapoor, 51, and Sangeeta Kapoor, 42, kept the animals in one flat of Brahma Horizon building while they lived in another apartment. According to the complaint by Meher Mathrani, a welfare officer at Animal Welfare Board, the women had kept the animals there since November 2014. “Our investigations are on to check whether they wanted to sell the cats. However, we registered an offence under cruelty to animals and public nuisance. The duo has been warned but since it is a bailable offence, we have not arrested them,” said Milind Gaikwad, senior police inspector.
The volunteers who carried out the rescue said it was their toughest operation ever. “The cats were living in a horrible condition. There were four inches of faeces all over the floor, and the house was infested with insects. It was a difficult situation for our rescue team, and even the police were unable to stand in the apartment for more than a minute,” said Neha Panchamiya, president, ResQ Charitable Trust.
However, Sangeeta claimed that they took care of the cats and were in the process of shifting the animals to a better place.
The Sirsa police arrested Dera Sacha Sauda’s IT expert from the group’s headquarters here on Wednesday.
SHO Ram Singh said police arrested Vineet Kumar and recovered 65 hard disks. A team of policemen keeping vigil on the premises of the Dera found Kumar trying to hide the hard disks by digging a hole in the ground behind the headquarters. The hard disks have been sent for forensic probe.
Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was convicted by a CBI court last month for raping two female followers. Following his conviction, Dera followers unleashed violence in several parts of Haryana, including Panchkula and Sirsa, which left at least 38 dead. The 700-acre headquarters were sealed and search operations conducted, which revealed cash and computers, besides a secret tunnel between the godman’s ashram and the women’s hostel. HTC