DANDELI (KARNATAKA): Taking advantage of a bungling in probe by Haliyal forest officials, those accused of poaching an animal, protected under Schedule-I of the wildlife laws, have managed to get bail. The accused could get out as the officials had booked the cases under an Act that does not exist in the law books and in the Indian legal system.
The cases were booked under the ‘Karnataka Wildlife Act’ and wildlife activists claim that this is done deliberately to weaken the case. “The foresters had to book the cases under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Instead, they have used the (word) Karnataka before the word ‘Act’, so that the accused could get bail easily,” explained a wildlife expert.