Man gets six months jail for killing cat in Mohammadpur

The court has also slapped him a fine of Tk 10,000 and one more month in jail if he fails to pay

A Dhaka court has sentenced Akbar Hossain Shiblu to six months in jail in a case over killing a cat owned by a man called Mansur in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.

The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Albiruni Mir of Dhaka delivered the verdict on Wednesday.

The plaintiff's lawyer Zakir Hossain said that in addition to the prison sentence, the accused was fined Tk 10,000 and sentenced to another month of jail in case of failure to pay.

Shiblu is a resident of Muktijoddha Tower in Mohammadpur. He was not present in court when the verdict was announced.

Therefore, an arrest warrant has been issued against him, said lawyer Zakir Hossain.

Earlier, on Feb 3, the court had set Feb 17 as the date for the verdict. However, the verdict was later postponed to Wednesday.

On Feb 5 last year, Nafisa Noreen Chowdhury of People for Animal Welfare filed a case in the court alleging the killing of the cat. The court accepted the plaintiff's statement and ordered Mohammadpur Police to investigate the complaint and submit a report. Later, after finding evidence pointing to the truth of the allegations, Mohammadpur Police submitted a report.

The trial opened with the framing of charges against the accused on Jul 14 last year. The testimony in the case ended on Dec 2. The court heard testimony from four people. After hearing the defence’s arguments in the case, the court announced the verdict today.

The case dossier says that a cat belonging to a person named Mansur, who lived on the 9th floor of Muktijoddha Tower in Mohammadpur went missing around noon on Feb 1. Later, CCTV footage from the building showed accused Akbar Hossain Shiblu kicking the cat like a football.

"Even after the cat was lying motionless following his kicking, he stepped on it and made sure it was dead,” the documents said.