Bengaluru, June 12 -- The Karnataka high court has quashed criminal proceedings against a Bengaluru resident accused of "kidnapping" his neighbour's cat, Daisy, and rebuked the police for getting entangled in what it called a "whimsical pursuit of justice." "The cat named Daisy appears to have driven everyone crazy...even the criminal justice system...," said the court on Tuesday. Justice M Nagaprasanna, who heard the case, expressed disbelief that a dispute over a missing feline spiralled into a full-blown criminal case, with a First Information Report (FIR), investigation, CCTV scrutiny, and a charge sheet invoking serious provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In 2022, Nikitha Anjana Iyer filed a complaint against her neighbour, Taha Hussain, alleging he wrongfully confined her pet cat. Police took the complaint at face value, registered the FIR, and began investigating. The court said what followed was a travesty. The police initially slapped IPC Sections 428 and 429 related to acts of cruelty against animals. The sections were dropped and replaced with Sections 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (insulting a woman's modesty) by the time the charge sheet was filed. None of those charges withstood legal scrutiny. Justice Nagaprasanna said the entire police machinery got involved in the case of a missing cat, recorded statements of neighbours, checked CCTV footage, found nothing, and still filed a charge sheet. "...If the contents of the complaint are seen, it shocks the conscience of the court as to how the jurisdictional police could have registered the complaint, as there is no offence indicated except a missing cat and alleged wrongful custody." Iyer described Daisy as a companion she cared for "like a child." But the court found no evidence to support the allegation that Hussain confined the cat. It accepted the petitioner's argument that Daisy was an agile and independent feline with a habit of jumping in and out of apartment windows, hardly grounds for criminal liability....