Dog bite anger leads to a protest in Jor Bagh

Jyoti Pande Lavakare, New Delhi

Jor Bagh is not the kind of neighbourhood in New Delhi where people take to the streets to protest. So, when residents showed up with placards and slogans at House 154, where Ms Ambika Shukla lives, it was an unlikely scene.

An elderly resident, Rajni Mehrotra, 81, had been bitten while walking down the street by one of the 15 dogs that Ms Shukla keeps at her home.

The dogs are allowed to roam free without leash, the residents say, creating a reign of terror, so to speak, in the nearby area. 

Appeals to Ms Shukla in a spirit of good neighbourliness have gone unheeded, the residents claim. Complaints to the local police haven’t resulted in any action either.

Ms Shukla happens to be an unabashed animal rights activist. She is also the sister of Maneka Gandhi. When in the past complaints have been raised against her, Varun Gandhi, an MP till recently, has spoken on Ms Shukla’s behalf.

Apart from the 15 dogs that live in her house and come out for walks without adequate supervision, she champions the cause of having stray dogs on the streets and feeding them there even if they bite people.

The dogs barking from behind the gates during the protest

The dog attacking the elderly Ms Mehrotra has been captured on CCTV. But there have been many preceding incidents in Jor Bagh, residents say.    

Bites by stray dogs, the larger cause that Ms Shukla champions, have resulted in several tragic incidents in Delhi and the rest of the country. Children, mostly from poor families, have been mauled to death.

“Every morning between 6.30 and 9.30 and evening between 5pm to 8pm, fifteen dogs from that house roam around the colony without a leash, taking over the adjoining park and roads, often attacking innocent passers-by. These fifteen dogs are managed by only two staff - one male and one female, which is just not enough. At least six to seven residents and their staff have been attacked by her dogs in a short period of time, including me - and I have been attacked twice,” says Vandhana Varma, a representative of the Residents Welfare Association and wife of the President of the RWA, Varun Varma. 

When contacted, Ms Shukla denied that her dogs roam around unleashed. She said only eight dogs are sent out at a time, with three attendants.

However, CCTV footage from July 1 shows an unleashed dog darting out of her house and biting an elderly resident who is walking on a public road outside her home. Ms Shukla admitted she has 15 dogs inside her compound “but they are all vaccinated and sterilised. They are all rescues, have never bitten anyone before.”

Rajni Mehrotra, 81, was bitten while walking down the street

She admitted she is aware of the July 1 bite but said, “This is the first incident in 30 years. It is unfortunate and one-off and we will ensure it never happens again.”

Residents aren’t so sure. “So many people have been bitten, we’ve lost count. Usually, they are staff or couriers or delivery people who leave and we never hear from them again,” said one resident who asked not to be named.

Leave alone picking up after her dogs, repeated requests to manage the dogs better have been ignored.

“I have gone with the beat constable and the RWA security guards with folded hands to ask Ms Shukla to increase the number of staff managing her many dogs so that at least our youngest and senior residents are safe, but to no avail,” said Varma, sounding thoroughly frustrated.

She has reason — the neighbourhood has been dealing with this issue for over two decades, and finally on July 14 came out in solidarity as a community to protest outside Ms Shukla’s home. The protest was silent, but the dogs were not and could be heard barking. Several policemen and a police jeep with the deputy station house officer were also present at the venue.

“Neelam Chopra and I were the first victims of her terror some 20 plus years ago. She would bring her dogs into the Community Centre hall for our aerobics class where the dogs would jump on us,” says Ritu Handa, another long-time Jor Bagh resident.

“I had many arguments with her,” says Handa resignedly. But her dogs continued terrorizing hapless residents.

From then to now, nothing much appears to have changed, except the dogs, with new ones being added to the menagerie, residents at the protest said. They said Ms Shukla’s dog walkers are still careless and laugh rudely when asked to leash the dogs.

The elderly and children still walk and play fearfully, avoiding the park that the dogs have taken over. Until April, the dogs were still defecating in the local temple compound, upsetting several residents. This led to a community complaint being filed by some residents at the local police station on April 1 asking for action under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, but no action was taken.

Leave alone action, three separate complaints filed at the local police station in the six months till July 1 have still not been converted to First Information Reports (FIRs). An earlier complaint filed by the RWA on its letterhead on December 31, 2023 remains on paper.

“The problem has become much worse in the past five years,” say two elderly women who live right next door to Ms Shukla in number 152 and 153 and were present at the protest. “We feel like prisoners in our own homes, and have to check if her dogs are roaming unleashed before we step out of our gate,” they said in unison.

Residents turned up with placards at Ambika Shukla's gates

Calls to the Lodhi Road police thana to ask why no FIR has been registered on any of the three complaints didn’t yield any credible answers. The SHO Sanjeev Mandal was on leave and his Deputy SHO Sumeet Mallik merely said the law will take its course. Investigating Officer Ramesh Dahiya, the policeman who is responsible for this particular case, (whom Civil Society met at the protest site) said he is “awaiting orders from above,” to convert the July 1 complaint into an FIR. He said he was unaware of the earlier complaints since he said he was posted to this station as recently as June 2024.

An RWA representative told Civil Society anonymously that some RWA committee members have even spoken to senior officers at the Deputy and Assistant Commissioner of Police levels, who told her in confidence that they could not proceed further as they have orders from their seniors not to take action.

“What protest?” Ms Shukla asked when contacted an hour after the protesters dispersed. “I’m not aware of any protest. I do hope someone from the house offered them water in this heat.” She said she was at an animal shelter at present and when told about the protests and details of the police complaints, she dismissed it, saying, ““There are people who will make trouble out of anything.”

Ms Mehrotra’s complaint of an actual dog bite, complete with an attached medical report, recorded by the colony's CCTV camera, will be harder for the police to overlook.

“She lacks empathy and basic humanity. How can she not be affected by the suffering of another at her expense and almost deluded apathy?” asks Richa Bery, whose maid was attacked by Shukla’s dogs last winter.

This story has been edited to remove Vandhana Varma's quote regarding Varun Gandhi, which she has requested be withdrawn.