Four arrested for racing horses on eastern expressway

In a rare case registered at the Navghar police station in Mulund (East), four people were arrested for having a horse race on the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) on Sunday morning. The police nabbed four accused and seized four horses and two Victorias after a 15-minute chase.

Navghar police said they had got a tip-off about the horse race earlier. On the basis of the tip-off, the Navghar police team waited patiently for the horse carts to arrive. "It was around 6:15 in the morning when we saw five carts with a total of ten horses arrive at the spot. There were around 25 motorcycles and five or six cars at the spot too. As soon as everybody had assembled, we raided the place and they began to run away," said police inspector Sampat Mundhe. He added, "The race was supposed to happen on the EEH from Mulund to Ghatkopar."

The accused are identified as William Jasanto, 21, Russel Jasanto, 35, Roney Pereira, 27, and Brandan Pesso, 20, all residents of the western suburbs. "The three other horse carts managed to flee from the spot. The arrested accused have told us that they used to race for fun, but we have reason to believe that the race happened for money and people had gathered there to place bets," said PI Mundhe.

All the accused were booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animal) and 34 (common intention). The police are now looking for the other accused involved. The arrested men were produced before the local magistrate court which granted them bail.