On the muggy night of October 13, 2017, Ajit Dev* and his wife sat on the balcony of their one-room tenement in the Mumbai colony of Gautam Nagar, chatting. It was around 11.45pm. Vishnu*, their younger son, had died on July 25, and sleep had since been fitful, if it came at all.  From their vantage point, a storey above ground, they espied a young man approach the block of men’s public toilets in front of their home. He seemed to be carrying a stray dog. Dev thought the dog was dead