Dog dies a day after mauling 11-month-old baby to death

The pet dog that mauled an 11-month-old baby to death in east Delhi's New Kondli area on Wednesday died on Thursday morning, police said. The dog's owner, Rajat, remains absconding.

The pet dog that mauled an 11-month-old baby to death in east Delhi's New Kondli area on Wednesday died on Thursday morning, police said. The dog's owner, Rajat, remains absconding.

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"The dog died on Thursday morning and the post-mortem on both the child and the dog has been done. We are waiting for the reports to ascertain the exact cause of death. A case has been registered even though the owner of the dog is absconding," said Prabhakar, deputy commissioner of police (east).

The dog — a Rottweiler —was reportedly taken away by East Delhi Municipal Corporation's (EDMC) dog squad on Wednesday evening.

Police officials said that while the dog was fine till after the incident, they had no reports of its whereabouts or condition after it had been picked up by the squad on Wednesday.

"Till Tuesday evening, the dog was absolutely fine. On Wednesday, the civic agency's dog squad took it away and thereafter we heard that it had died. The child, however, died because of deep bite marks and not other physical injuries," said a senior police official.

EDMC official could not be contacted on this matter.

On Tuesday evening, the dog had allegedly attacked the baby who was being carried by the neighbour's child.

"I was sitting in front of the house with my child when the neighbour's child - Ravi - asked me if he could play with her. After he took her, the dog jumped at him and grabbed my child while his owner kept talking on the phone," said Chitra Gupta, victim's mother.

The family, however, continues to hold the dog's owner responsible for the death, claiming that it was his lax response that led to the child's death.
"If the owner had acted soon enough, my daughter would have been alive. But the dog released the child only after three people tried to wrestle the child away from it. We took her to a private hospital where she was declared brought dead," she added.