BHUBANESWAR: A court in Nayagarh awarded three years rigorous imprisonment (RI) to a wildlife criminal Bhagabat Majhi (35) of Bhogabadi village, Daspalla.
Majhi was convicted by the Judicial Magistrate First Class under sections 379 and 411 of IPC and section 51 of Wild Life (Protection) Act. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Majhi and failure to pay it will extend his RI by six more months.
Earlier Majhi’s bail plea was rejected by the court. During the trial, the prosecution examined seven witnesses. Majhi was arrested by Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch on November 4, 2022 near Kuanria Dam in Daspalla. Two leopard hides and one skin each of a deer and an Asian Palm Civet Cat, also known as ‘Salia Patini’ along with pangolin scales and two tusks of a wild boar were seized from him. STF had sent the seized leopard hides to Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun for examination.
After investigation of the case, the agency had filed a chargesheet in the court. “The agency was given the power to investigate wildlife crimes in 2018. Since then, trial of four cases has been completed and all have ended in conviction,” said STF IG, Jai Narayan Pankaj. “Wildlife crimes are one of the focus areas of STF and we will continue the drive against the poachers/dealers across the state,” he said.