Katni (MP): A court here on Thursday convicted a notorious tiger poacher, a resident of Haryana, for poaching the big cat and smuggling its body parts and sentenced him to three years imprisonment.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Dariya.
In an example of speedy trial, the case reached to its logical conclusion within seven months after his arrest in Katni in November last year when wildlife officials seized a tiger and leopard spring trap, a cheetal skin, antlers, a spear and other poaching equipment from Dariya.
Katni Deputy Forest Officer A K Bronia said Dariya was arrested from Katni Forest Division with the help of an NGO Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).
While sentencing Dariya, the Judicial Magistrate, Umar Shankar Agarwal, observed that the traps appeared to have no other use other than killing wild animals, as leopard hair had been identified on one of the traps by forensic experts.
“This is a unique judgement where conviction has been granted on the basis of seizure of spring traps,” said WPSI lawyer Manjula Srivastav who handled the case.
Dariya had previously been booked in four tiger and leopard poaching cases in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. --
