A case of ‘killing of rats’ in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh has become a topic of discussion across the country. The police have filed a 30-page chargesheet against the accused in the court after the rat’s post-mortem was conducted recently.

The postmortem at IVRI Bareilly and now the chargesheet in the case has generated curiosity over the country’s first of its kind trial. Questions are being raised on the points to be included by the police in the rat murder case and the punishment being contemplated for the accused by the court in such a case.

The case pertains to Badaun’s Sadar Kotwali where on November 25, Manoj Kumar, a resident of Mohalla Panwadi Chowk who is a potter by profession, threw a rat tied to a stone with a rope into the drain. Vijendra Sharma, an animal lover and district president of PFA who was passing, jumped into the drain and took the rat out, but could not save it.

After failing to save the life of the rat, Vijendra Sharma filed a complaint against the accused in Sadar Kotwali, on the basis of which the police registered a case under sections of the Animal Cruelty Act.

When it came to the post-mortem of the dead rat, the district veterinary officer expressed his inability to conduct it citing the absence of a post-mortem facility for the dead body of a rat in the Badaun district and asked to take the body to the IVRI Center in Bareilly.

Though the police were not interested in the matter, Vijendra was adamant on getting the post-mortem done. After IVRI Bareilly was referred for the postmortem of the rat, Vijendra along with the police took the body of the rat to IVRI in Bareilly in his AC car where the postmortem was done on the rat. Discounting death due to drowning, the postmortem report cited suffocation as the cause of the death of the rat.

In the case, the police arrested the accused first before granting him bail. Five days after this, accused Manoj surrendered himself in a court. The court had also granted him anticipatory bail after keeping him in custody for some time.

Ashok Kumar Singh, DFO of the Forest Department, said the rat has been kept in the warming category under Section 5 in the Forest Department Act and no offense is made on killing it, but an FIR has been registered under the Animal Cruelty Act. and hence it cannot be considered wrong.

In the midst of all these arguments, the police have filed a 30-page charge sheet in the court a few days ago considering Manoj as an accused.

CO City Alok Mishra said that the police have added each link in the charge sheet during the investigation. This charge sheet has been prepared by including the post mortem report, videos released in the media, opinion of the experts of different departments concerned.

Rajesh Yadav, sub-inspector of Sadar Kotwali and investigation officer of the case, has written in the chargesheet on the basis of the evidence collected that Manoj has been found accused in section 11 (Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act) and section 29 (killing or maiming animals).To strengthen the charge sheet, the post-mortem report has been made the basis, in which it has been clarified that the lungs of the rat were damaged, there was swelling in them, there was also infection in the liver, as well as it was clarified in the microscopic examination of the rat that he died due to suffocation by drowning in water.

According to legal expert senior advocate Rajeev Kumar Sharma, in the case of Animal Cruelty Act, there is a provision of fine ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 20,000 and imprisonment of three years. Under Section 429, there is a provision for both imprisonment of five years and fine. Since such a case has not come to light before in the country. Cases of animal cruelty are registered but the case and post mortem related to rats has not come to light before. In such a situation, how much punishment and fine the court will impose on Manoj, this will also become an example.

When the media tried to talk to Manoj, he flatly refused to oblige, but Manoj’s father Mathura Prasad said, “It is not wrong to kill a rat and a crow. These are harmful creatures.Rats gnaw the raw pottery made by his family and turn it into a pile of mud, which causes him a lot of pain financially and mentally. He said that if our son is punished in this case, then all action should also be taken on those who kill chicken, goat and fish. Action should also be taken against those selling rat poison.”

Animal lover Vikendra Sharma, stressing on his charges, said the rat is a quadruped creature with four legs and one tail. We have not lodged an FIR for killing the rat, but for being cruel to it, he added.