NAGPUR: High drama was witnessed on Monday in the court of judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) R B Raja when Nirafal Chouhan, one of the accused in tiger poaching case, fainted in the courtroom when he and two others were produced after their forest custody remand (FCR) expired.

Even as special counsel for forest department Kartik Shukul argued for extension of FCR on the grounds that all three during interrogation in the last three days had confessed to killing one more tiger and two leopards in Masondi in East Melghat.

The accused, in their confession statements, said that although the steel traps were laid to net a tiger, a sloth bear and two leopards too died after getting entangled in them. Offence has already been registered against all the accused in case of a bear and a tiger.

Shukul argued that in view of fresh revelations, FCR of Lupustan and Srival was needed for a spot panchnama and verification in Masondi. He did not push for FCR of Nirafal, who fainted in the courtroom and was later shifted to hospital on JMFC's direction. Counsel for accused P S Sontakke was not present.

Prior to being produced in court, Nirafal was fine. As soon as he entered the courtroom, he threw tantrums by falling down and lying as if unconscious. Seeing his condition, his son Surival started crying loudly followed by another accused Lupustan.

JMFC Raja then sought a medical report from investigating officer (IO) H B Virsen. He produced papers of medical check-up of the accused done at 12 noon. The papers showed they were doing well.

Virsen further informed the court Nirafal was the fourth accused to have fainted in the courtroom. Earlier, it was Minar, wife of Nirafal, Chika, who is under MCR, and Parman Sawalkar, who harboured poachers in Masondi. They had all fainted when their FCR extension was demanded.

Strongly arguing for FCR, Shukul said it was not the case of one or two tigers, the accused had links to poaching network in other parts of the country. He also produced copy of the notification issued by the state government on August 26, that stated CBI had agreed to probe the tiger poaching cases here.

After hearing Shukul, the court ruled extension of FCR was being demanded on the basis of mere confessional statements, which were recorded in piecemeal. "In my opinion, extension of custody would give permission to prosecution to pressure the accused. Looking at the slow progress of the investigation, the FCR needs to be rejected," the court ruled. It granted magisterial custody to all three accused till September 10.

Forest department seeks narco test of seven accused

The forest department on Monday, through its counsel K N Shukul submitted an application for a narco test of seven tiger poaching accused - Mamru, Chika, Yarlen, Barsul, Lupustan, Ujiyar and Siri. However, as counsel for accused was absent and as his consent was needed, JMFC RB Raja did not consider the application. Shukul was asked to submit the application afresh.

No in-camera hearing

On Monday, there was no in-camera hearing in the poaching case. On August 30, on an application submitted by the forest department counsel, an 'in-camera' hearing was held in which everyone except IO, counsels for forest department, accused and court staff were asked to go out.