TEZU, 4 Apr: The court of the sessions judge here in Lohit district on Tuesday rejected the application filed by accused Mapikam Tega for granting pre-arrest bail in a tiger poaching case.
Tega in his application said that he has apprehension of being arrested in connection with Anini PS case No 04/2023 u/s 4/39/51 (0) of the Wildlife Act.
Hearing the case, the court ordered: “It is not disputed that the tiger carcasses were found in the vehicle of the present accused and this prima facie puts the accused responsible for such possession and this court is not inclined to grant the privilege of pre-arrest bail to the accused when the investigation is in a very infant stage.
“Accordingly, the present bail application is rejected,” the court pronounced.
Earlier, the applicant’s counsel, MK Singh, had submitted that the accused had been granted interim bail under Section 438 CrPC for the same offence, which is registered in Assam.
The counsel further said that “the accused had given his car to the main accused but the main accused carried the carcasses of tiger without his knowledge and authority.”
The informant’s counsel, E Mili, objected to granting of bail, submitting the photograph showing the seizure of tiger carcasses from the vehicle of the accused.
Public prosecutor K Dorjee also objected to the bail on the ground that “Section 51 A of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 provides for stringent provision for bail, and in this case, prima facie, the present accused is involved.”
Recently, officers and personnel of the forest departments of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in a joint operation had arrested a tiger poacher from the Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary in Dibang Valley district.
The poacher has been identified as Jakir Husain, a resident of Hagun Toli village in Nagaon district of Assam.
The team had also seized a Royal Bengal tiger skin, four tiger canine teeth, one tiger skull with teeth, 46 pieces of bones, and a vehicle from Husain’s possession.
