A Dhaka court has sentenced a man to six months in jail and fined him Tk10,000 for brutally killing a neighbour’s cat in Mohammadpur after CCTV footage showed him repeatedly kicking the animal until it died.
A Dhaka court has sentenced a man to six months in prison for brutally killing a neighbour’s cat in the capital’s Mohammadpur area.
Metropolitan Magistrate Albiruni Mir delivered the verdict on Tuesday (11 March), sentencing Akbar Hossain Shiblu, a resident of Muktijoddha Tower in Mohammadpur, to six months’ imprisonment.
In addition to the jail term, the court also fined him Tk10,000. If the fine is not paid, he will have to serve an additional one month in prison.
Zakir Hossain, lawyer for the plaintiff, confirmed the verdict.
He said the accused was absent when the judgment was announced. The court therefore issued an arrest warrant against him along with the sentence.
Earlier, on 3 February, the court had fixed 17 February to deliver the verdict after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and the defence.
The date was later deferred and the judgment was finally announced on 11 March.
According to case details, the court completed recording testimonies on 2 December after hearing statements from four witnesses.
The case was filed on 5 February last year at the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court by Nafisa Nowrin Chowdhury on behalf of People for Animal Welfare.
On the same day, the court recorded the plaintiff’s statement and directed Mohammadpur Police Station to investigate the allegations and submit a report.
Police later submitted an investigation report confirming that the allegations against the accused, Akbar Hossain Shiblu, were true.
On 14 July, the court formally framed charges against him and ordered the trial to begin.
According to the complaint, the incident occurred on 1 February last year when a pet cat belonging to a resident named Monsur from the ninth floor of Muktijoddha Tower in Mohammadpur went missing.
Later, CCTV footage from the building showed the accused repeatedly kicking the cat like a football.
Even after the animal lay motionless from the blows, he continued striking it with his foot until it died.
Witnesses who saw the incident initially did not know how to respond and later informed the plaintiff about what had happened.
Based on witness accounts and CCTV footage, the court concluded that the accused had intentionally and cruelly killed the cat.
