JOIN USThe canine menace returned to haunt the city when a pack of stray dogs mauled a sleeping toddler to death at Bagalur on Wednesday morning. The 18-month-old baby boy, identified as Prashant, was sleeping beside his parents in a shanty when stray dogs dragged him out.
“I have seen many bodies in my life but I could not muster courage to see this one. I just had a look at it and closed my eyes. Then I could not stand there for a moment,” said Bagalur police station House Officer C Balakrishna.
According to the police and eyewitnesses, the blood-curdling incident occurred at 3 am on Wednesday. Sukhdeep (50), his wife Kaikeyi (37), from Nuapada district in Orissa, had been staying with their seven children at a brick kiln run by Venkateshwara Rao, who is based at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. The owner had built shanties for some 40 workers. None of them had doors or windows.
Sukhdeep’s eldest daughter Neera told Deccan Herald that her parents and her siblings went to sleep at 11 pm on Tuesday after the tiresome work at the kiln. She was woken up by her parents’ screams in the morning. Prashant was the only male child of Sukhdeep and Kaikeyi. They have six daughters.
At least three to four stray dogs had entered the shanty and dragged Prashant out of the shanty.
The canines had bitten the child so severely that his right leg and fist were severed.
The Bagalur police have registered a case and have arrested the contractor.
The police believe that the child died due to dog bite but await the postmortem report for confirmation.