Pune man arrested for assaulting mother-daughter duo for sheltering stray puppies

The Kothrud Police arrested a 45-year-old man for assaulting a girl and her mother after the latter prevented civic officials from taking away stray puppies they had given shelter to. In a despicable and brazen show of anger, Milind Kale, the accused in question, hit Sejal Saraf and her mother Sonali with chappals and banged Sejal’s head to a wall. Sejal even lost her tooth in the scuffle. The incident took place at a housing society in suburban Kothrud on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_3024470” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] The CCTV footage of Milind Kale (inset) hitting Sonali Saraf. Courtesy: YouTube[/caption] Kale was arrested under sections 325 (causing grievous hurt), 354 (outraging modesty of woman), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. The incident came to light after its CCTV footage, in which Kale is seen hitting them with a shoe, went viral on social media. According to the police, a stray female dog in the area gave birth to four puppies and died a few days later. Sejal and Sonali took care of the puppies as they needed medical attention. However, Kale called the Pune Municipal Corporation to take away the puppies. But on informing that the two-month-old puppies can’t be held captive as they need medical attention, the civic officials left. An argument ensued between the Kale and the mother-daughter duo, following which Kale started hitting the duo with shoes, slapped and kicked them. Talking to a Marathi news channel, Sejal said, “We were looking after the puppies as they were ill. The puppies started entering the building. Kale lodged a complaint with the Pune Municipal Corporation to get rid of the puppies. When the PMC employees heard our request to not to take the two-month-old puppies, Kale came to us and started abusing and hit us both. He hit my head to a wall and I lost my tooth.” It was not the first time that a complaint was lodged against Kale, said Sejal. “Earlier too we had a similar fight over dogs, but no action was taken then. Now that he is arrested, he deserves it.” Invoking Animal welfare law, Sonali, Sejal’s mother told the channel that PMC has no right to take away puppies below six months old. “PMC employees understood that they can’t take away two-month-old puppies. That’s why they left. Besides, it’s inhumane and, of course, criminal to hit women like this. Kale should be brought to justice.” “We were even thinking to change the location of the puppies on Sunday if they were causing inconvenience to the residents. But before we could do that, Kale brought this on us,” Sonali said. The puppies are currently housed with Sejal’s friend since the matter got out of hand. Kale was produced in the court on Monday which remanded him in one-day police custody. You can watch the video of the scuffle here:

With inputs from PTI