Chandigarh, June 18: A pack of four stray dogs attacked and mauled to death an 18-month-old boy at a park in Sector 18 on Sunday.
The toddler, identified as Aayush, was playing in the park with his three elder siblings while their mother, who is a domestic help, had gone to work at a nearby house, said police. The family lives in Palsora.
The victim’s maternal uncle, Popat Lal, said Aayush was at the lower end of a swing when the dogs started barking aggressively at him and then attacked him around 11:30am.
“The whole incident lasted for nearly eight minutes. The dogs dragged the boy into a puddle of water that had accumulated in the park after the overnight rain and mauled him,” said the uncle. “The other siblings ran away in fear.”
Popat Lal said the back of Aayush’s head was covered with canine bites and there were teeth marks on his lower back and chest too.
The boy was taken to Government Multi Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, where all efforts to revive him proved futile. Doctors confirmed that he had deep dog bite injuries on his body.
Police officers, who reached the spot, said the boy had lost a lot of blood as evident from the puddle in the park that had turned red.
Aayush was youngest among his siblings — two brothers and a sister. His mother, Mamta, 27, said she used to always leave her kids in the park to play while she worked in nearby houses on Sundays. Her husband, Mundar, works at a shop.
Sector-19 station house officer Davinder Singh said: “ We have recorded statements of the family members and initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code.”
The boy’s body has been kept in the mortuary and will be handed over to the family after postmortem.
Source Hindustan Times
