INDORE: Indore Police in Madhya Pradesh are searching for the owner of a horse which was painted in the BJP's flag colors and paraded during Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia's `Jan Ashirwad Yatra' after receiving a complaint from an animal welfare NGO.
Incidentally, the founder of the complainant NGO, People For Animal, is BJP MP Maneka Gandhi.
The horse, which also had the word `BJP' in English and party symbol lotus painted on its body, was seen walking alongside Scindia's `rath' (decorated van) during the event on Thursday.
Subsequently, Indore unit chief of the People For Animal Priyanshu Jain approached Sanyogitaganj police station here, seeking the registration of an FIR under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
Painting and parading an animal in this way amounted to cruelty, the complaint said.
"We have started an inquiry. We are looking for the owner of the horse," police inspector Rajeev Tripathi said, adding that no First Information Report has been registered yet.
Scindia, newly inducted in the Union cabinet, had taken out a three-day Jan Ashirwad Yatra (tour) which ended in Indore on Thursday.