Uttarakhand HC warns of referring tiger poaching case to CBI. (File)
Noting the “seriousness” of a tiger poaching incident where five tigers were allegedly killed by poachers inside the state boundaries, the Uttarakhand High Court, on Thursday, stated its dissatisfaction with the inaction of the state government on the case where forest department officials have been accused of introducing lapses that resulted in the poaching of tigers. The court therefore warned the state government that it might refer the case to the CBI.
On June 28, this year, Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Jai Raj submitted a report to the state government holding former Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden Digvijay Singh Khati and former Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) Director Samir Sinha responsible for “administrative laxity” that resulted in the poaching of five tigers in the year 2016.
Jai Raj’s report mentioned: “It appears that on his (Khati’s) intimation the evidence was made to disappear. This proves his criminal intent.”
On Thursday the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Lok Pal Singh was hearing a PIL that was filed in the year 2017 by a trust ‘Operation Eye of the Tiger-India’ on the same poaching incident.
When the court asked the state government about the action taken on Jai Raj’s report, the response received was that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the tiger poaching incident. However, the Division Bench stated that it was “not satisfied with the answers” that were given by the state government.
“The Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) to the State of Uttarakhand is directed to file supplementary affidavit by 23.08.2018 stating there in what action has been taken by the State Govt. on the letter dated 28.06.2018 (that is, Jai Raj’s report), failing which, the matter may be referred to CBI, taking into consideration the seriousness/sensitivity of the matter, whereby five tigers were reported to have been killed by poachers and the evidence was destroyed by the poachers and allegedly by forest officials,” the court order stated.
Jai Raj’s report was based on a poaching incident where, on March 13, 2016, five tiger skins, and 136 kilograms of tiger bones were recovered from Haridwar district’s Shyampur area.