Chandrapur: Local court in Bhadrawati acquitted a gang of 16 villagers accused of poaching a tiger near TadobaAndhari Tiger Reserves (TATR) boundary in nine year old case. JMFC court found the evidences presented by the prosecution to be insufficient to hold the accused poachers guilty of crime and let them of off on the benefit of doubt. Forest department is contemplating on challenging the verdict in a higher court.
The case dates back to January 11, 2007 when the dead body of a full grown tiger was recovered from a farm well near Katwal village in Moharli (territorial) range (now Moharli buffer range of TATR). The carcass was tied to large boulders to ensure that it sunk into the waters of the well. The then RFO of Moharli (territorial) range, RanjanPawar, however cracked the case in few days and rounded up the 16 accused poachers from villages around TATR core area.
Investigations revealed these accused, hailing from Katwal and Viloda villages and led by Suresh Garate had laid an electrified wire in protected forest of Wadala near the boundary of TATR core area on January 6, 2007. The 150 meter long electrified wire was laid to kill herbivores, but a full grown tiger was killed instead on the same night.
Confused, the poachers then took the body of the tiger to the nearby fields and dumped the carcass into the farm well of VinayakKritane. They had bound the large stones to the neck, hip and tail of the body.
The court, however, observed that evidences produced by the prosecution failed to prove that the accused were guilty of the crime and stated that the evidences in the case were circumstantial in nature. "Court held that it could not punish the accused on the basis of circumstantial evidences and the confessional statements of the accused," said RFO, Moharli (buffer) range, SachinShinde.
The accused acquitted by the court include Suresh Garate, GulabSherkure, Vijay Nandardhane, Nikesh Bhaisare, RameshwarPonkar, Sanjay Mankar, MadhukarDhawne, ShivajiGarate, JhitruKoychade, Bharat Garmade, JanardhanNandardhane, MadhukarChoudhari, Suresh Shrirame, Manohar Nandardhane, ShambhajiShrirame and one other. RFO Shinde informed TOI that certified copy of the two week old judgment was obtained a few days back. "We have forwarded the copy of judgment to our legal adviser with the request to verify whether department could challenge the verdict in higher court," he said.
Reacting to acquittal, Central India director of Wildlife Protection Society of India, Nitin Desai stressed on the need of apt collection of physical evidences, relating them with the accused and strong presentation of case before the court. He pointed out that wildlife cases are very much different from police crime.
"In wildlife cases, crime is often reported very late, hence quality material evidences collected from the crime scene is of poor quality. This case highlights the importance of physical evidences from the crime scene. Forest department should use of advanced forensic science to connect the accused of crime," he said.
