Case 1: XX is drowned in a nallah on November 24. Cops at Sadar Kotwali police station register a case and book the accused within an hour. A post-mortem is done the same day and doctors conclude that xx had a liver ailment before being thrown into the drain.

Case 2: XX is found lying outside Badaun railway station on November 23 and is taken to hospital where he dies the next day. The body rots at the mortuary for seven days as the cops of the same police station apparently forget to conduct a post-mortem or even identify the person.

XX in Case 1 is a rat. XX in Case 2 is a human being.

Both incidents have taken place over the past eight days at Badaun town in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district.

On November 24, personnel at Sadar Kotwali police station booked potter Manoj Kumar, 35, on the complaint of an animal rights activist for tying a brick to the tail of the rat and throwing it into a drain after he saw his children playing with the rodent.

Vikendra Sharma, the animal rights activist, had shown the police a video of Manoj purportedly tying a brick to the tail of the rat and throwing it into a nallah near his home in the Panwariya area.

The police fished out the rat from the nallah and sent it to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, after local vets allegedly refused to do its post-mortem.

The post-mortem report received by the police on Friday stated that the rat had been unwell before it was thrown into water. K.P. Singh, joint director of the institute, said: “The rat’s liver was damaged even before it was thrown into water. However, the water had not reached its lungs. It didn’t die of suffocation.”

Harpal Singh, the station house officer of Sadar Kotwali, said: “We have booked Manoj for mischief to kill or maim an animal and under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. We interrogated him but didn’t arrest him. He should cooperate with the inquiry.”

Shakuntala Devi, Manoj’s wife, said: “The kids (three daughters) had caught the rat and were playing with it. My husband saw this and threw it into the nallah. I want to ask the person who filed a case against my husband why doesn’t he take similar action against goat and chicken meat sellers. Rats damage our clothes and pots, while the chicken don’t harm anybody. A rat had nibbled the skin on the hand of my youngest daughter when she was an infant.” “Strangely, the police filed the case within an hour of receiving the complaint,” she added.

The other case was reported at the same police station in Badaun on November 23, when a man was found lying outside the local railway station and some people of the area admitted him to the district hospital where he died the next day.

The police neither sent the body for post-mortem nor tried to establish his identity.

The matter came to light on Thursday evening when an employee of the mortuary at the district hospital informed the authorities that an unclaimed body was rotting there.

Sanjay Kumar, an inspector of the Government Railway Police, said: “The district police asked us on Thursday what should they do with the body that had been lying at the mortuary since November 24. We went to the mortuary and asked them to follow the routine procedure of conducting a post-mortem before disposing of the body. We don’t know why they (cops at Sadar Kotwali police station) forgot to write to the hospital to conduct the post-mortem.”