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21-year-old man held for brutally killing cat after video goes viral in Gujarat
The incident, which occurred at a vacant land parcel near Sahaj Apartments in New Vadaj, was recorded on a phone by a local resident on December 21.
Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Police arrested a 21-year-old man on Monday after a video showed three people slamming a cat against the ground and hitting it with large stones in the city’s New Vadaj area, police said.
Police identified the prime suspect as Rahul Dantani, a resident of Mahadevnagar in Vadaj.
The incident, which occurred at a vacant land parcel near Sahaj Apartments in New Vadaj, was recorded on a phone by a local resident on December 21.
According to the complaint and the video, three people arrived at the spot on a scooter carrying a cat in a white sack. One of them first slammed the sack on the ground. The cat was then taken out and hit repeatedly with large stones, leading to its death. The youth is then seen kicking the cat’s lifeless body, sitting next to it and posing for photographs taken by his accomplice on a mobile phone.
The video provoked outrage on social media and formed the basis of a first information report after local animal rights activists visited the spot and found the dead cat.
“Based on the scooter’s registration number seen in the video, police identified the main accused as Rahul Dantani, a resident of Mahadevnagar in Vadaj, and arrested him within hours of the FIR being registered,” a Vadaj police station officer said.
The role of the other two men seen in the video is under investigation, he added.
The case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
CCTV footage from nearby areas and the viral video are being examined as part of the investigation, police said.
