Tamil Nadu: BSP Leader Poisons 16 Stray Dogs, Arrested

A 43-year-old man named Vetri Vendhan was arrested by the Tiruvallur town police for killing 16 stray dogs by poisoning their food. The dogs had repeatedly attacked and bitten his pigeons and hens. Vendhan, a resident of Tiruvallur town, is reportedly a district functionary of the BSP and works in real estate.

The police identified the suspect using CCTV camera footage after receiving a complaint from a local resident, Karthikeyan. Karthikeyan had raised a stray dog that mysteriously died in a field on October 2. An investigating officer noted, “Karthikeyan raised a doubt that many stray dogs died in a similar way on 2nd October.”

Tiruvallur town’s deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Tamilarasi and her team began probing the matter. While reviewing the CCTV footage, they found it unclear; it showed a man walking with a bucket, leaving food in a field, and then departing. With limited evidence, the police struggled to identify the suspect. They also discovered that another incident involving the death of stray dogs occurred on September 22.

After further investigation, the police collected additional CCTV footage, which led them to Vetri Vendhan. During questioning, he confessed to killing the stray dogs, explaining that they continuously attacked his pigeons and hens. He admitted to devising a plan to eliminate the dogs, poisoning their food on September 21 and again on October 1.

Police inspector D. Antony Stalin registered a case against Vetri Vendhan, charging him under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 for the poisoning and killing of the dogs. Vendhan was subsequently presented before a magistrate court in Tiruvallur and remanded in judicial custody.