Dream Hotel founder and socialite Vikram Chatwal turned himself in to police this morning to face charges of criminal mischief, animal cruelty, reckless endangerment, and arson for allegedly setting two dogs on fire outside of his SoHo apartment building on Friday afternoon.
TMZ obtained video of the aftermath of the bizarre incident, which occurred Friday at about 1:30 p.m.. In the footage, the dogs, which were being walked by a dog walker, can be seen with singed fur, and as a group of people awaits police, Chatwal apologizes and offers to take them up to his apartment and show them his Basquiats and his "water collection." By the time officers arrived, Chatwal had returned inside, and cops were unable to reach him, for reasons which remain unclear.
Chatwal allegedly used an aerosol can and lighter to torch the dogs. He turned himself in at the 5th Precinct station house in Chinatown, with a lawyer, an NYPD spokesman said.
The hospitality magnate founded The Dream Hotel Group, which includes the Dream, Time, and Unscripted hotels. He was arrested for drug possession in 2013 at Florida's Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport after TSA agents allegedly caught him trying to board a plane with heroin, cocaine and prescription pills. He faced as many as 20 years in prison, but the case was dismissed after he completed a rehab program in New York, the Post reported.
Chatwal has dated Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen, and is reportedly friends with Lindsay Lohan.
