A 34-year-old man landed in police custody after an animal activist shot a video of him torturing a mouse to death.
Manoj Kumar had to reportedly spend 10 hours in police custody even as the police officials said further investigation into the allegations against him was underway.
Circle officer Alok Mishra, however, told reporters that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was not applicable in the case as mice did not come under the category of 'animals'.
"We have sought legal opinion in the matter and action will be taken accordingly," he stated.
The officer said the animal activist, Vikendra Sharma, lodged the complaint and sought action against the man for drowning a mouse in the presence of his children.
"I saw that the accused was torturing the mouse by tying a stone to its tail and drowning it in the drain water. On questioning him, Manoj Kumar replied that he will repeat the act," the complaint read.
The complainant added that he tried to rescue the mouse but could not.
Interestingly, the police recovered the dead mouse and sent it to a veterinary hospital for post-mortem. However, the staff at the veterinary hospital refused to conduct the autopsy after which the dead rodent was sent to Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly, nearly 60 km from Badaun.
Another police official said the IVRI authorities have sought a week's time to send back the autopsy report.
He said the complainant himself paid Rs 225 required to be paid for the examination of the dead rodent.