Mumbai, Nov 18 (IANS) Mumbai’s animal lovers remained in mourning on Monday even as police worked overtime to narrow down on the killers of 14 stray dogs whose carcasses were recovered on November 9 in Kandivali West. Sources said four suspects had been detained.

While the final post-mortem report of the carcasses was awaited, police sources confirmed the use of sharp-edged weapons to chop the stray dogs’ bodies into pieces. Food poisoning before the gory crime has also not been ruled out yet.

Police have scanned the footage of CCTV cameras around the Mangalmay Tower in Sai Nagar but the effort has not yielded much information about the movement of stray dogs on the day of the incident, sources said.

Sources said four suspects had been detained, a development confirmed by an activist who claimed to be aware of the progress in the probe.

Area residents, most of them feeders of the slain stray dogs, have been holding protests and demanding speedy action in the shocking case of cruelty against animals. A candle march was organised on Sunday to demand justice for the canines.

One of the residents hinted that some people in the area did not like feeding stray dogs.

Mumbai Police have registered a case under section 325 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) dealing with committing mischief by killing any animal. The offence is punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both.

Heena Lambachiya, a resident of the Mangalmay Tower, was the first to notice the body of a dog in a gunny bag in the drain on November 9. She along with Ashish Busa, office-bearer of the building’s society, approached the police to file the FIR at Kandivali police station.

Dogs’ body parts, stuffed in sacks, continued to be discovered over the next few days from the drain.

A stray feeder from Andheri, who joined area residents in the protest, said, “We came to show solidarity with residents of Mangalmay Tower. We are demanding strict action against the culprits.”

Calling it an inhuman act, she sought swift action against the culprits.

Roshan Pathak, a social activist, who joined the protest march demanded swift action against the culprits. “Enhancement of fines for cruelty against animals is the only way of creating deterrence against it,” he said.

Apart from the FIR under BNS section 325, a case under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 has also been filed over the incident.