Court Sentences Tiger Poacher to 3 Year’s Rigorous Term in Katni
A court in Madhya Pradesh has served a three year term of rigorous imprisonment on a tiger poacher, besides a fining Rs 10, 000, said officials.
In a statement, the NGO Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) said that Dariya (only the first name given) was convicted on Thursday by a court in Katni.
The accused was arrested by the Katni Forest Division on Nov 27, 2008, after a tip-off given by WPSI, the statement said.
A number of poaching equipments including tiger and leopard traps, a cheetal skin, antlers, a spear etc. were seized from his possession following his arrest.
While pronouncing the sentence, Judicial Magistrate Umar Shankar Agarwal observed that the traps appeared to have no other use than killing wild animals, as leopard hair were found on one of the traps that were confirmed by forensic experts, according to the statement.
Dariya has been previously booked in four different tiger and leopard poaching cases in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He also served a five-and-a-half month jail term in Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh in another case in 2005.
After being released from jail, he was again wanted in another case of tiger skin seizure near the Nepal border in 2006. The tiger is thought to have been killed in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar.
