Uttarakhand Police horse Shaktiman, injured during BJP protest, passes away

Dehradun: Shaktiman – the horse of Uttarakhand Police that had a leg amputated after being allegedly assaulted by a politician – died on Wednesday.

It was injured during a BJP protest in Dehradun.

A couple of days ago, reports had stated that Shaktiman was recovering well and had started walking after a prosthetic leg was arranged for and fixed by Jamie Vaughan, an American animal lover who lives in Paro, Bhutan and runs an animal shelter there.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat expressed condolence over Shaktiman's death and said, "I am shocked, can't express my feeling in words, we all thought Shaktimaan was recovering well."

Meanwhile, blaming the Congress government in the state, BJP leader Ajay Bhatt said, "An innocent animal died because of the state govt’s mistake and no proper treatment was given to it."

Contradicting Bhatt's claims, doctor who was attending Shaktiman said, "We are very sad. Everybody did everything possible, what happened today is sad."

"It was unexpected as Shaktimaan was recovering well. A brave horse has died and we must respect it," said Dr Khambatta.

Demanding strict action against those responsible for Shaktiman's death, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said, "Shaktimaan was a police officer on duty and went through so much pain which ultimately killed him. The culprits should be arrested for killing a police officer." 

Shaktiman was part of the Uttarakhand Mounted Police. It had fallen down during the protest after BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi allegedly tried to pull it down.

Joshi was seen trying to hit the horse with a stick and was also accused of breaking its leg. He has, however, maintained his innocence claiming he was just trying to scare the animal.

Joshi, who was arrested on charges of attacking Shaktiman, was later granted bail on March 22 by a local court here.

District and Sessions Judge Ramdutt Paliwal had granted bail to Joshi on furnishing two bail bonds of Rs 25,000 each, his lawyer R S Raghav had said. 

He was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody in the case on March 18. His bail petition had been rejected just a day later by the court of Judicial Magistrate Akram Ali.

Non-bailable offences under which Joshi was charged include stopping government officials from discharging their duties.

(With Agency inputs)