Indian animal advocates beaten

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2009:
AHMEDABAD, THRISSUR– The Kerala Elephant Lovers’
Association on March 24, 2009 asked the Indian federal government to
investigate the ambush beating of Thrissur SPCA senior inspector E.R.
Jayan. Jayan was allegedly assaulted by four men on March 19 after
responding to a false report that an elephant was being abused.
Jayan was attacked two weeks after Animal Lovers Emergency
Rescue Team founder Sandra Jhala, 53, of Ahmedabad, “suffered
multiple fractures, cuts and bruises after men went into her yard
and attacked dogs kept there,” reported the Times of India on March
3, 2009. Beaten when she intervened, “Jhala received more than 50
stitches on her head and has five fractures on her left hand,”
elaborated Roshan Kumar of the investigative newspaper DNA.

Jhala named her assailants. “It was an attempt by my
neighbours and local goondas, including Nainesh Patel, Shailesh
Patel, Dipak Patel and Daya Patel, to kill me,” Jhala alleged to
Kumar. “Dipak Patel has been running all sorts of nefarious
activities, including gambling and liquor trade,” Jhala added, “and
the local police are also assisting him,” she alleged. Wrote Kumar,
“Jhala said Dipak Patel and her neighbours wanted her to vacate the
ground-floor flat where she has lived for more than 11 years so that
they could use the area for business purposes.” Charges were filed
against the suspects, but they remained at large, Kumar reported.
Rahul Sehgal, founder of the Ani-mal Help Foundation in
Ahmedabad, was in mid-2007 beaten in a similar gang attack, and the
Animal Help computers were smashed. Sehgal also named his
assailants, whom he said were associated with a rival animal
charity, but to little avail.
An early 2000 crackdown on illegal slaughter in Ahmedabad
turned violent after vigilantes helped police to seize 2,125 animals
from illegal butchers, including 641 cows. 180 people were
arrested, 58 vehicles were impounded, and one person was killed in
fights between the butchers and the vigilantes.