In a horrifying incident, three puppies were allegedly burnt alive by a group of youngsters, one of whom recorded the gruesome act, police said on Wednesday.
The dastardly attack on the dogs took place at a graveyard in Musheerabad area on July 16 afternoon and came to light on Tuesday when a video of the incident went viral on social media.
The city police on Wednesday apprehended five boys after Shreya Paropkari, an animal rights activist, lodged a complaint.
A criminal case under Section 429 (killing or maiming cattle etc) of Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act was registered against the minors involved in the incident.
According to The Hindu newspaper, the minors were residents of localities near Dayakar Kaman graveyard and used to come there to play cricket on holidays.
On July 14, they went there and picked up the puppies -- barely two to three months old -- moving in the vicinity of the graveyard and tied them to long sticks. They put heaps of dried sticks and branches of bushes and lighted the matchsticks.
As the puppies tried to escape, they pushed them back into the fire leaving all the three dead.
"One of the perpetrators recorded the entire incident and is heard instructing and instigating the others to set them on fire. The recordings were recovered from a fish stall owner in Musheerabad," Shreya said in the complaint.
Meanwhile, in a second viral video, said to have been taken at the Nampally area, a man is seen taking aim at a dog and shooting it dead.
The latest incident comes weeks after two medical students, Gautam Sudharshan and Ashish Pal threw a dog from the rooftop of a building in Chennai. While the dog was found alive, the two students were arrested and released on bail. The dog they tortured survived her fall with a fracture to her hind leg and is being cared for now by an animal shelter.
