Tripura youth sent to jail for brutally killing street dog

A local court in Tripura on Sunday sent a youth, accused of killing a street dog brutally, to jail, officials said.

An official said that the youth was arrested from Wak Shimalung Para village in Khowai district on Saturday for killing a street dog on March 11. The youth, identified as Bador Jamatia, has been booked under Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

The police produced Jamatia in a court in Khowai on Sunday and the judge granted him bail. But there was no bailer in favour of the accused. "When a bailer would come forward as his surety, then he would be released from jail and until then he would remain in judicial custody," the official said.

The police arrested the youth after Tipra Motha Party (TMP) supremo and royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma lodged an FIR with the police after noticing a video on social media where the youth was found engaging in an act of cruelty towards the animal.

"Jamatia was seen (in a video) brutally murdering a dog by beating several times until the dog died (torturing it to death)," Debbarma said in his FIR.

The "Pawsome", Tripura's first animal welfare organisation, also filed a separate FIR at the Teliamura police station on the issue. The video of Jamatia's act was widely circulated on social media and triggered serious repercussions and widespread outrage across the state, especially among animal lovers.

According to the viral videos, Jamatia brutally beat the dog and later hung it from a tree. The accused had been absconding before he was arrested on Saturday.

Jamatia was reportedly accused earlier of several such killings of animals, including street dogs, the police said. Tripura Animal Resources Development Minister Sudhangshu Das also strongly condemned the gruesome act and directed police to take immediate action to arrest the culprit without delay.