Union minister Maneka Gandhi has sought the arrest of the person responsible for the death of police horse ‘Shaktiman’ adding that the animal should not be part of police forces.
Gandhi, also a renowned animal rights activist, said that Shaktiman was a police officer on duty and the person who was responsible for its death must be brought to task.
She said, “They serve no purpose and in every crowd engagement they are at the mercy of any vicious person who is too cowardly to do anything but injure the defenseless animal. Shaktiman was a police officer on duty and the person who put him through so much pain and ultimately killed him should be arrested for killing a police officer.”
She also suggested that horses should not be a part of police forces in future. “I am deeply saddened by the death of Shaktiman. It is an extremely unfortunate incident. Horses should no longer be part of our police system” she added.
Shaktiman had died in Wednesday after surviving on three legs for more than a month. The 13-year-old horse was injured during the BJP protests in early march and had its leg amputated as the blood supply to broken legs had stopped.
Maneka Gandhi had, in the past, written to Uttarakhand Director General of Police demanding strict action against the BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi for attacking a police horse. The 13-year-old was “not responding to a prosthetic leg brought from the US”, say doctors. It spent the past few weeks at the police lines in Dehradun, where a group of policemen looked after him.
