Overview

• On May 21, a Worli court sentenced Rishabh Patel to four months’ rigorous imprisonment and fined him ₹4,000 after his Husky bit neighbour Ramik Shah inside an apartment lift in February 2018.
• Judicial Magistrate Suhas Bhosale convicted Patel under IPC section 324 for voluntarily causing hurt and section 289 for negligent conduct with respect to an animal.
• CCTV evidence showed Patel dragging his dog into the lift despite Shah’s request to wait because his young son feared dogs, leading to a bite on Shah’s left forearm.
• Patel’s defence cited a delay in anti-rabies vaccination and a family dispute, but the court dismissed these claims for lack of substantive evidence.
• Delivered seven years after the incident, the ruling sets a benchmark for pet-owner accountability and follows a series of dog bite complaints in Mumbai housing societies that have spurred calls for tighter oversight.