The attack occurred around 3 p.m. when the child stepped out to retrieve a ball that had rolled toward a neighbour’s house. As he approached, the pitbull charged at him. CCTV footage shows a woman attempting to restrain the dog, but the animal overpowered her and pounced on the boy, knocking him to the ground and biting him repeatedly.
Eyewitness Satish said local residents intervened to pull the child away. “His ear was already cut off when we reached him. There was blood everywhere. We rushed him to a nearby hospital,” he said. The child was later referred to Safdarjung Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment for 8–10 deep bite wounds on his head, face, and body.
Police arrested the dog’s owner, Rajesh Pal, 50, a tailor, on charges of negligent conduct under Sections 291 and 125(b) of the IPC. Residents allege the same pitbull had attacked several children in the past. “We had complained multiple times and asked the family to remove the dog. Nothing changed,” the victim’s grandfather said.
The incident comes weeks after the Supreme Court directed municipal bodies in Delhi-NCR to remove stray dogs from sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals, and to ensure captured dogs are not released back to the same areas after sterilisation.
As the child remains in hospital, the case has intensified calls for stricter regulation of aggressive dog breeds and stronger accountability for pet owners in densely populated neighbourhoods.
