It was quite a spectacle in the Ghaziabad city court when the trophy of a huge Royal Bengal tiger was brought inside the premises as the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) (VIII) Gyanendra Singh wanted to see the tiger pelt for himself.
The trophy is a case property and the same is being heard by the judge. It may be noted that on January 14, 2013, Ghaziabad Police had recovered a tiger trophy from the drawing room of a leading transporter Sunil Sharma, a resident of Surya Nagar. The illegally procured trophy comprised the bones stuffed with the husk weighed about 50 kilos.
Gaurav Gupta an activist of People For Animals (PFA) alleged that during three years of trial there were several lapses. As per sub section (4) of section 50 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, police should have sealed the seized property with the counter signatures of witnesses and that should have been produced before court. But during these two years, the case property had been left to rot in the godown of the police station.
The court took cognizance of a complaint by PFA on March 12 that due to “criminal negligence of the link Road police,” most of the nails of the big cat were missing. Tiger nails are reportedly valued at Rs20,000 to Rs25,000 each in the black market. During these three years, police did not get the skin of the tiger verified, which is mandatory to prosecute any offender, Gupta alleged.
Meanwhile Sunil Sharma in his explanation clarified that his father (late) Ml Sharma, who was fond of hunting, had mounted it in the living room about 10 years ago and was unaware of the law. Since the law prevailed at that time too when his father committed the crime, Sharma will have to pay for his act that violates the law of the land, said another activist.