Debosmita

Everything was over in a span of 5 minutes. The moment I stepped out of the lift, I heard a shrill cry, as if someone was dying. I ran. When I reached the gate, the watchman said, “Madam, your dog is dead”.

I stay in Hyderabad. After returning from the office, I take some rest and go out for a walk after dinner. When I step out of the apartment, I play and pamper the street dogs near my house. I am incapable to shelter them. Therefore, the least I can do is to play with and pat them. Dogs are very innocent and only expect some love and caring.

There was one such dog which I used to look after every day. But he is no more now.

I had booked an Uber cab to go to a location far off from my place, at 10 am in the morning. The moment I stepped out, I heard the cries. I ran out and saw him lying dead on the road. The driver had run the car over him. Both anger and sadness came over me and memories flashed before me. I clenched my fists and went to the driver, who, without a speck of worry and guilt, continued sitting in the car. I took out my cell phone and started making a video of the driver, so that I had the right evidence to take action against him.

It seemed like I was his first passenger and he had come back from the temple wearing a tilak. The argument with the driver didn’t reach any conclusion. He had entered a dead-end lane and probably didn’t know how to park the car. He was adamant and didn’t even feel sorry or care to get out of the cab to replace the dead body somewhere else. Rather, he cancelled my trip.

Soon, I posted the video on my Instagram and asked my friends and followers to repost the video until justice was served. I felt hurt yet gathered my courage to go to the police station. But there I was informed that there was no such rule to put the culprits behind bars for killing street dogs. “People are getting murdered, and nobody care to do anything about that. Here you are complaining about someone who ran over a street dog” – the police personnel had said.

Meanwhile, the video on my profile had caught the attention of many. Some were expressing disappointment and unfortunately, there were also some people who were saying – “Jo bhi hua acha hua”. I checked the comment section few days, regularly. The locals, including me, were experiencing this incident for first time. Nobody was aware what to do about the dead body. All we could think of putting that in the municipality garbage area. Those exchange of words had got captured in the video I had recorded. In the comment section, some were blaming me for asking the driver do that. Then, I had no idea what to do.

Uber India had reached out to some of my friends who had posted my video in their stories, sharing concern. The most shocking thing that came out of the incident was, the license plate in the video was not present in their records!!! I am alarmed thinking that if there are loopholes in the system, then how will justice be served when any crime happens.

That dog was cremated by the locals in a nearby graveyard. As I love dogs very much, this incident took an emotional toll on me. I have recovered now, but when I think about the case, no justice has been done to that dog, whose only mistake was to be born on the streets. Laws need to change and police should help in getting criminals like these behind the bars.