Police on Thursday arrested two of the eight men booked for allegedly raping a goat on July 25 at a village in Nuh district, earlier known as Mewat.
The seven-year-old goat was pregnant and died the day after the assault, police said.
The incident took place at Maroda village, which is around 73 kilometres south of Gurugram.
The accused were identified as Jaffar Khan (22) and Saahukar Khan (21), residents of Maroda village in Nagina, Nuh.
They were booked under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with man, woman or animal” and under the Animal Cruelty Act at Nagina police station in Nuh.
Police said the accused are locals and alleged history-sheeters. They are truck drivers and have allegedly been involved in multiple cattle and motorbike thefts in the last three years and were arrested on multiple occasions. The villagers had beaten up three of the eight villagers after the owner of the goat caught them in the lewd act in the room where they had tied up the goat, police said. However, they were let off soon after.
“We had formed three teams who were conducting raids at suspected locations. Two of them have been arrested from Firozpur Zirka and will be produced before the civil court on Friday,” Nazneen Bhasin, superintendent of police, Nuh, said adding that five others are yet to be identified.
The owner, Aslup Khan, said that after being informed about the arrest, he went to the police station and identified the two who were his neighbours. “I cannot forgive them for what they have done.
The goat was like my child and was to deliver. I want them to pay me a compensation of Rs 1 lakh. Earlier, they had stolen another four goats that I owned,” said 27-year-old Khan, a truck driver.
Khan said they caught hold of them and beat them up, but they were let off later as they were allegedly in an inebriated state and were regular offenders. He further said that the three men told them about five others who had allegedly raped the goat that night.
Bhasin said the three men have a criminal record and were jailed in the past for allegedly stealing motorcycles and cattle.
“My goat was injured and lying on the ground. It was not even able to walk. I took it home and applied medicines on the wounds on its head and nose. It did not eat anything the next day and was lying as if it was paralysed,” Khan said.
Police said one of the accused met Khan the next day and mocked him over the condition of the goat.
Dr Ramvir Bhardwaj, veterinary surgeon of animal husbandry, who is posted at Nagina and conducted the post-mortem examination, said the goat died of brain hemorrhage. “It was 50 days pregnant and would have delivered two babies in the last week of November. There were two foetuses found in the abdomen during the autopsy,” Bhardwaj said.
