The Karnal leopard killing case took a new turn today with noted environmentalist and wildlife activist Naresh Kadiyan lodging a complaint against the police personnel involved in the shooting of the “big cat” under Section 9 of the Wildlife Protection Act and penalties under Section 51.

Kadiyan, who lodged the complaint against sub-inspector Som Pal and others in the Sadar police station, said the “brazen act” of the police tantamounted to “poaching” and punishable with imprisonment up to three to seven years and a fine of Rs 25,000. He also demanded that the case be investigated by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau.

However, local villagers took a diametrically opposite stand and maintained that the policemen acted to save their lives and announced to publicly honour the policemen.

In fact, the Forest Department was to be blamed for the incident as it failed to capture the leopard and rescue the people under attack.A case should be registered against the forest officials concerned who did nothing to save the people from attacks by wild animals and not against the policemen who killed the leopard to save innocent people, they argued.

Meanwhile, Naresh Kadiyan launched a “light a candle” campaign on the Internet to pay homage to the dead leopard and to create awareness about wildlife protection among people.