Eight men in Haryana have been booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Animal Cruelty Act for allegedly gang raping a pregnant goat in Haryana, last week, according to reports.
The owner of the goat from Maroda village in Mewat district caught three men in the act, the Hindustan Timesreported. The three men, who were beaten up by the villagers, revealed that five others had also raped the goat.
The seven-year-old goat, 50-weeks pregnant, died one day after the assault. The police is investigating the crime and is yet to make arrests, according to the HT report published on Sunday.
All the accused are absconding, ANI reported. Three of them have been identified as Savakar, Haroon and Jaffar, The Indian Expressreported.
Section 377 of the IPC prohibits carnal intercourse against the order of nature including with animals. The accused have also been booked under Section 429 of the IPC, which prohibits the killing and maiming of animals.
"The accused who have been identified were not at home when we went looking for them," Vipin Kumar, SHO (Station House Officer) of Nagina, toldThe Times of India. "We have conducted raids at different places where the accused were believed to have taken shelter. The goat died because of severe injuries."
PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Meet Ashar said the goat was "tortured and abused" after it was "gangraped." "People who are violent often start with animals as victims and then move on to humans. This case should, therefore, worry everyone," she toldThe Indian Express.
Aslup Khan, a 27-year-old truck driver, told HT that his goat went missing on Wednesday night. "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."
"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 paralyzed," Khan told the newspaper.
The accused men were reportedly in an inebriated condition when they were assaulting the goat.
Khan told HT that one accused mocked him the next day, "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," he said.
Ramvir Bhardwaj, a veterinary surgeon in Nagina, told HT that the goat died of a brain hemorrhage.