Shaktiman dies: BJP MLA Joshi offers his leg, likely to be arrested again

Dehradun: Police horse `Shaktiman`, which suffered multiple fractures on its hind leg during a Bharatiya Janata Party protest here triggering widespread outrage, died on Wednesday, days after it got a prosthetic limb.

Animal rights activists reacted sharply and asked the government to take action against the accused BJP leader, Ganesh Joshi.

Vets attending the 13-year-old animal said it had not responded to a prosthetic leg brought from the US. The horse died on Wednesday afternoon, they said.

Responding to the news, BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi, accused of instigating the brutal attack on the horse, said, "I am very sad. I was not at fault, not even 0.1 percent. If I am found guilty, then cut my leg." The lawmaker was arrested and later let off on bail last month.

In a sharp reaction, Union minister Maneka Gandhi said, "Shaktiman was a police officer on duty and the person who put him through so much pain and ultimately killed him should be arrested for killing a police officer."

PETA India chief executive Poorva Joshipura, meanwhile, said that the country should frame more stringent laws against animal assaulters so that people like Joshi refrain from being cruel to them.

Shaktiman's story had stirred many across the country after it was seen in television visuals taking multiple blows and dragging its broken, mangled limb in excruciating pain during the protest on March 14.