Tigress death: Top MP forest official gets 3 years in jail for trying to implicate IAS officer

PTI, Dec 17, 2022, 8:45 PM IST

Representative Image (Source: Shutterstock)

Umaria: A Madhya Pradesh court sentenced a top forest department official to three years rigorous imprisonment for trying to implicate an IAS officer in connection with the death of a tigress in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Umaria district.

A vehicle had hit and killed a lactating tigress on May 19, 2010, while it was crossing the road to reach its three cubs.

On Friday, Manpur Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Satish Shukla found Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Protection) CK Patil and three others guilty of abducting a forest personnel and pressuring him to implicate the then chief executive officer of the district panchayat Akshay Singh in the case.

Patil, who was the field director of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve at the time, was found guilty under sections 195A (threatening a person to bear false witness) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), petitioner Man Singh’s counsel Ashok Verma said on Saturday.

Patil was fined Rs 5,000 as well, Verma told PTI, adding the three persons who have been convicted along with the former are Sub Divisional Officer DC Ghormare, and rangers Rajesh Tripathi and Ranger Regi Rao.

Ghormare, Tripathi and Rao have been sentenced to six months in jail and have also been fined Rs 500 each, Verma said.

The court held that his client Man Singh, a driver with the forest department, was wrongfully confined to provide false witness against panchayat CEO Akshay Singh in order to implicate him, Verma said.

The accused were convicted on the basis of statements of witness and material placed on record, he said.