Mumbai: Animal activists have served a legal notice to the Mumbai Police after the latter failed to register an offence against NESCO Exhibition Centre for allegedly relocating more than 40 dogs out of its premises. The activists have also served a legal notice to NESCO alleging that it continues to relocate dogs from its campus.

The Free Press Journal reported on April 30 that the Pure Animal Lovers (PAL) Foundation had written to the Mumbai Police commissioner and the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) alleging that over 40 dogs were relocated by NESCO Centre in Goregaon (E) from its premises.

While feeders alleged that the police are not registering a first information report (FIR) and NESCO continues to relocate the stray dogs, they warned of moving the court in this matter.

On Monday, Ayush Munot, a feeder, issued a legal complaint to Mumbai Police commissioner through his advocate Preeti Salaskar. He has urged the police to expedite investigation into the mysterious mass disappearance of the community dogs by registering an FIR and taking legal action against the perpetrators. He stated that if police do not act immediately, he will move the court for the sake of getting an FIR registered.

Through the legal notice, Munot stated that before the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials directed the marking of designated feeding spots inside the NESCO premises on April 18, approximately 40 community dogs had gone mysteriously missing from the premises. It claimed that the police have not taken any action even after 18 days of filing a complaint.

The notice stated that the feeder, along with PAL Foundation’s animal rights advisor Roshan Pathak, had approached senior police inspector Raju Mane of Vanrai Police Station, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Zone-12 Smita Patil and additional commissioner of police (North Region) but none of them took a prompt action.

“There was no chance that the community dogs would ever leave their territory. Now they have mysteriously gone missing from NESCO that too just before the designated feeding spots were allocated. The circumstantial events strongly reflect that the mysterious disappearance of these dogs is premeditated, collective conspiracy and intentional, controlled relocation of the community dogs from their well settled territory,” said Munot.

Simultaneously, Munot also issued a legal notice to the officials of NESCO Centre and urged them to locate the missing dogs and return them back to their territory within a period of seven days. The notice claimed that if the dogs are not brought back within a week, the complainant will resort to civil and criminal legal proceedings.