Three sentenced to four years’ rigorous imprisonment each for hunting down wild tusker in Kuttampuzha in 2009

Kothamangalam Magistrate sentences three for elephant calf shooting, others acquitted; convicted face prison time and fines.

The Kothamangalam Judicial First Class Magistrate-II has sentenced three out of the seven accused in the case related to the shooting down of an elephant calf in Kuttampuzha forest range and attempt to sell its tusk in 2009 to four years each of rigorous imprisonment and fine of ₹15,000 each.

The convicts sentenced were the first accused Aji, of Kuttampuzha, his brother and fifth accused Babu and the third accused Shaji, 38, of Adimali. The case pertains to the gunning down of a six-year-old elephant at Kathippara reserve forest within Aanakkulam forest station limits in the Kuttampuzha forest range on July 8, 2009. Their period of detention that they have already undergone will be set off from their prison term as per Section 428 of CrPC.. Magistrate E.N. Haridasan passed the verdict.

While the second accused Sinoj, 24, of Kothamangalam died in between, the fourth accused Suresh, 23, of Udumbanchola remains at large. The sixth and the seventh accused Ranjith, 22, of Airapuram, and A.J. Varghese, 53, of Kothamangalam were found not guilty and acquitted for lack of evidence. They were accused of helping the attempt to sell the tusk and making the country gun used for the hunting respectively.

The convicts were sentenced to three years’ of rigorous imprisonment each and a fine of ₹10,000 each under the Wild Life Protection Act Section 51 for hunting a wild tusker and rigorous imprisonment of a year each and a fine of ₹5,000 each for trespassing into the reserve forest under the Kerala Forest Act Section 27 (1)(e)(iv).

The first five accused had trespassed into the reserve forest with unlicensed country gun on July 7, 2009. The elephant was shot down by the first accused Aji the next day. The accused had to stay back in temporary shed and could retrieve the tusks only on the third day as the elephant herd, including the mother of the elephant killed, declined to move away from the elephant gunned down.

The accused could reportedly retrieve only one tusk as the other had come unstuck while the elephant herd attempted to drag away the carcass of the elephant calf. The other tusk was recovered by the accused from near the carcass of the elephant during the course of the investigation.

The incident came to light after two of the accused were taken into custody during the attempt to sell the ivory from near the VT Restaurant in Adimialy on July 17, 2009. A team led by the then Kuttampuzha forest range officer Manu Sathyan and Adimaly forest range office K.P. Shaji caught the accused red handed with the ivory based on a tip-off received by the State forest intelligence wing.