Police have booked eight men in a village in Haryana’s Mewat district
for raping a goat Wednesday night. The seven-year-old goat was pregnant
and died a day after the assault, police said.
Police said the
accused are locals and alleged history-sheeters. Three of them were
beaten up by villagers in Maroda village about 73 kilometres south of
Gurugram after the owner of the goat caught them in the act.
Police
have registered a case under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code,
which prohibits “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with
man, woman or animal” and under the Animal Cruelty Act at Nagina police
station in Nuh, earlier known as Mewat. The police are yet to make any
arrests but say that the accused would be nabbed soon.
“Our team
is investigating the case and has recorded the statement of the goat’s
owner, who allegedly caught the three accused in the act. We are also in
the process of recording the statements of other eyewitnesses and
villagers to know the exact sequence of the crime and arrests will be
made once we get all the details,” Nazneen Bhasin, superintendent of
police, Nuh, said Sunday morning. Five others are yet to be identified.
The
owner, Aslup Khan, said his goat went missing from its shed, located
adjacent to his house, on Wednesday night after which he and other
villagers started looking for it. “It was around 11pm when I heard some
noise and went out. The gate of the shed was open. I panicked and raised
an alarm, as four of my goats had been stolen in the past and this was
the only one left. While we were looking around, we found three men
sexually assaulting my goat,” said 27-year-old Khan, a truck driver.
Khan
said they caught hold of them and beat them up, but were let off later
as they were in an inebriated state and were regular offenders. He
further said that the three men told them about five others who had
allegedly raped the goat that night. Bhasin said the three men have a
criminal record and were jailed in the past for allegedly stealing
motorcycles and cattle.
“My goat was injured and lying on the
ground. It was not even able to walk. I took it home and applied
medicines on the wounds on its head and nose. It did not eat anything
the next day and was lying as if it was paralysed,” Khan said.
Police said one of the accused met Khan the next day and mocked him over the condition of the goat.
“He
came to me on Thursday and threatened to steal the goat. He laughed and
said that he and his friends had a nice time that night, which made me
furious. I thrashed him after which he fled the spot,” Khan said.
The
condition of goat started deteriorating and it died around 6pm. That’s
when the villagers informed police who reached the village on Thursday
night.
“We informed the veterinary surgeon as the post-mortem had
to be conducted and booked the men involved in the sexual assault,”
Bhasin said.
Dr Ramvir Bhardwaj, veterinary surgeon of animal
husbandry posted at Nagina said the goat died of brain haemorrhage. “It
was 50 weeks pregnant. During the post-mortem examination, it was found
that there was blood in her windpipe. Samples of its vaginal swabs were
sent to the forensic science laboratory,” Bhardwaj said.
Source: Hindustan Times
