BOUDH: In a major boost for wildlife crime prosecution in the state, a Boudh court on Monday convicted eight persons for elephant poaching and possession of tusks in connection with a case registered in 2016.
Chief judicial magistrate-cum-additional sessions judge of Boudh Bisweswar Biswaprakash Ray sentenced all the eight to five years rigorous imprisonment besides imposing fine on them.
This is the first case in Odisha where the accused have been convicted in elephant poaching and tusk smuggling. The case was being investigated by the special task force (STF) of Crime Branch.
The convicts were Babuli Mahalik, Panchanan Kanhar, Manoranjan Pradhan, Murali Mahalik, Gopal Naik, Prakash Behera, Dharmaraj Nayak, Subhaya Pradhan and Manmath Kanhar. Another accused Gopal Naik had died in the course of trial.
Of the eight, Murali, Babuli, Prakash and Dharmaraj were present in the court when the court pronounced the verdict. The court has issued non-bailable warrants against the other four for not appearing during the sentencing.
The case was booked by Crime Branch on June 2, 2016 under sections 429, 379, 34 of the IPC besides 9(B) of Indian Explosive Act, section 4 of Explosive Substance Act, 51 of Wild Life Protection Act and 27 of Odisha Forest Act.
On June 1, 2016, after getting information from district voluntary force about suspicious movements of nine persons in Mundeswari reserve forest, Boudh police conducted a raid and intercepted them for possessing elephant tusk, arms, explosives and gunny bags.
During search, three single barrel muzzle loader guns were found from Manoranjan, Gopal and Prakash, while an axe was found in possession of Babuli. A gunny bag containing eight pieces of tusks were found on Panchanan.
During investigation, all the nine confessed to have killed an elephant and removed its tusks for smuggling. The prosecution examined 22 witnesses and produced 19 exhibits during the trial.
This is the 11th case of STF where the accused persons were convicted under Wildlife Protection Act. Till date trial has been completed in 11 cases and all the cases have ended in conviction.