The Metropolitan Magistrate at Delhi’s Karkardooma court has directed the local police to file an FIR against a policeman for assaulting a street dog with a lathi during patrol duty in the national capital’s Jafrabad locality.

The video of the incident which took place in January last year went viral on social media after which some animal rights activists approached the court to seek justice for the animal as the police refused to file an FIR.

“The Delhi Police refused to register an FIR or take the injured dog for a vetero-legal examination, as is required by various provisions under law,” The Hindu cited Akshita Kukreja, one of the animal activists, as saying.

The complainant told the court that the cop while riding on his motorcycle had scared the dog resting on the footpath due to which it bit him on his leg. The policeman then pursued the dog and thrashed him mercilessly.

The Delhi Police stated in court that their investigation revealed that the policeman had hit the dog in an act of “self defence.”

The policeman in the video was identified as ASI Ravindra, who was posted at the Jafrabad police station.

Over a year after the incident, Metropolitan Magistrate Bharat Aggarwal ruled earlier this week that the police had given a clean chit to the accused, ASI Ravindra, without even registering the FIR and without conducting an “investigation” in the manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The magistrate observed that submitting closure reports before the registration of an FIR with the title of “inquiry” was not permitted under the law,  yet the police were often resorting to the practice to bypass the procedure prescribed under the Code.

The application was filed in court by the advocate of the animal rights activists under Section 156(3) of the criminal procedure code.