BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi was arrested in Dehradun on Friday for allegedly attacking and breaking a hind leg of a police horse during a protest march on March 14. The incident sparked wide-spread outrage and led an FIR being filed against Joshi and his associates.
Joshi is the second person to be arrested in the case. On Thursday, the BJP worker identified as Pramod Bora was arrested from Haldwani in Nainital district for forcefully pulling the bridle of the horse and causing its fall at the protest venue and leaving it injured.
Bora was arrested from Mukhani area of Haldwani on a requisition by Dehradun police, Nainital SSP Sweety Agarwal said, adding he has been handed over to a police team from Dehradun and is being taken to the state capital.
The horse in fact fell with its entire weight on its hind quarters under the combined impact of Joshi's frontal attack with a lathi and Bora pulling up its reins from one side, Dehradun SSP Sadanand Daate said.
'Shaktiman', a well trained horse which was part of Uttarakhand Mounted Police for years, was allegedly attacked by Joshi, an MLA from Mussoorie, during the march. The animal suffered fractures in one of his hind legs during the protest.
Shaktiman had its injured left leg amputated on Thursday in an emergency life-saving operation.
The surgery was conducted at a veterinary hospital here by a team of doctors led by surgeon Feroze Khambatta, hours after Army doctors from Pune opined that one of the hind legs of the horse that was fractured will have to be amputated as the animal might lose its life by Friday due to spread of gangrene from the wound.
"The surgery has gone as planned," Uttarakhand DGP B. S. Sidhu said after a limb of the horse, which was still in pain and could not stand on its feet, was removed, three days after the attack.
"The surgery was basically necessitated by the fact that the blood supply has ceased to the portion of multiple fractures and it was essential for saving the life of the animal. We got the best possible surgeon in the country to perform the surgery and we hope he will be able to survive," Sidhu said.
Stating that Shaktiman will take a month to recover from the surgery, Sidhu said that in the meantime he will be given temporary prosthetic aid in the form of artificial legs which will be tailor made to his specifications.
"Army doctors are attending on the horse. We are doing everything we can to help it recover fully from the injuries," Dehradun SSP Sadanand Daate had said earlier in the day.
