A Chhindwara court acquitted four people, accused of selling a tiger skin, after the court was told that the skin recovered was that of a domestic dog, an advocate familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The four were booked under the Wildlife Protection Act for selling the tiger skin in 2017.
Chhindwara district court chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Pawan Kumar on Saturday discharged the accused on the basis of the forensic report of the School of Wildlife Forensic and Health (SWFH), Jabalpur. The report stated that the skin recovered was of a domestic dog.
“Tiger is a schedule 1 animal under Wildlife Protection Act and the hunting of animals of schedule 1 is prohibited in the act. Domestic dog is not a part of the act that’s why the accused, who were booked under the act for hunting of schedule 1 animals, have been discharged of charges,” retired wildlife chief warden Alok Kumar said.
The police in July, 2017 arrested two law students, Abhijeet alias Matru Shakrawar (son of a former BJP district president), Rajesh Vishwakarma, and two businessmen, Sandeep Singh and Ram Kumar, from Ranikamath village of Chhindwara district under the Wildlife Protection Act, Chhindwara forest ranger Surendra Rajput said.
“ A joint team of forest and police had recovered the skin from their possession. Later, the skin was sent for a forensic test. They were in jail for one month but were released on bail later,” Rajput said.
{{/usCountry}}“ A joint team of forest and police had recovered the skin from their possession. Later, the skin was sent for a forensic test. They were in jail for one month but were released on bail later,” Rajput said.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, defence advocate Satishraj Shrivas said, “The case was pending before the court for quite long and the police had submitted only the charge sheet not the forensic report.”
“In September 2021, we filed an application under Section 239 (when the accused shall be discharged in the absence of evidences) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Following the plea, the court directed the probing team to submit the forensic report.
“The investigating team submitted the forensic report but the said report had come in September 2017. We got to know about it after submitting the plea,” said Shrivas. “On the basis of the forensic report, the court acquitted the four people,” he added.
Investigating officer and the then police station in-charge of Dehat police station, Brijesh Mishra, said, “We arrested the four on the information that they are selling tiger skin. At the time of the arrest, they had said that an occult gave them the skin saying that it belonged to a tiger and that they didn’t kill any wild cat for it.”