It took a DNA test to end the dispute over dog’s ownership in MP

Shadab Khan claimed to have lost his dog Coco in August last year and accused an ABVP leader of stealing it.

DNA test report ended a four-month old dispute over ownership of a three-year-old Labrador in Mahdya Pradesh’s Hoshangabad district, said police.

It took a DNA test to end the dispute over dog’s ownership in MP

“The DNA report of the dog matched with its parent in Pachmarhi and now the dog will be known as Coco,” said Santosh Singh Gaur, superintendent of police, Hoshangabad, who ordered the DNA test to ascertain the dog’s parentage in November last year following conflicting ownership claims by a journalist, Shadab Khan, and an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader Kratik Shivhare.

“After the DNA test report, the dog has been handed over to Shadab Khan on Friday,” said the SP. Shadab said he was happy to get his pet back after seven months.

In November 2020, Shadab Khan claimed to have lost his dog Coco in August that year and accused the ABVP leader of stealing it. He told police that he had seen his dog at Shivhare’s home. A day later, Shivhare reached the police station with papers and claimed that the dog belonged to him and that his name was Tiger. Shivhare claimed that he had purchased the dog from Itarsi.

As both were adamant on their claims and the dog was equally friendly to both, the then police station in-charge Hemant Shrivastava discussed the matter with the SP and decided to get the dog’s DNA test done, said the police.

Till the report of the test arrived, Shivhare was allowed to keep the dog.

One police team was sent to Pachmarhi and the second to Itarsi to collect the sample for the dog’s DNA test to establish its origin. Later, the samples were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad.

Last week, the police received the report, confirming that the dog’s parentage was from Pachmarhi and therefore it was returned to Shadab.

Hoshangabad dehat police station in-charge Anoop Singh said, “We are investigating to find out who stole the dog. We will interrogate the person from Itarsi, who gave the dog to Kratik Shivhare.”