Case No./CRR – 3523 of 2010
THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA CRIMINAL REVISIONAL JURISDICTION
BENCH: Hon’ble Mr Tirthankar Ghosh J.
DATE OF JUDGEMENT: 23 December 2019
RELEVANT ACTS/SECTIONS:
Section 9 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Prohibition of hunting)
Section 39 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Wild animals, etc., to be Government property)
Section 40 (2) of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Declaration)
Section 43 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Regulation of transfer of animal, etc.)
Section 49 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Purchase of captive animal, etc., by a person other than a licensee)
Section 49-B(1)(a) of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Prohibition of dealings in trophies, animal articles, etc., derived from scheduled animals.)
Section 51(1-A) punishment under the 1972 Act (Penalties)
Section 55 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (Cognizance of offences)
Section 104 of Customs Act, 1962 (Power to arrest in case of offences related to the said act)
BACKSTORY
This case came up for revision on appeal against the judgement passed on the date 26th November 2010 by the Ld. Additional District & Sessions Judge, 9th Fast Track Court, Bichar Bhavan, Calcutta, in Criminal appeal No. 31 of 2010. Under this case, wild animal’s body parts were found at the Quasim Ali’s resident, those animals come under the Schedule-I of the 1972 Act and the accused person didn’t have any permission or certificate for exporting these items. All these activities are illegal so after doing investigation and seizer of the items, accused was remanded to jail custody at 6-8-95, and the case was handed over to the wild wing of West Bengal.
The investigation was done by the Officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at the resident of the present petitioner/Quasim Ali at 16, Ratu Sarkar Lane, Calcutta- 700073 when the information was received by the office of the DRI, Calcutta and the investigation conducted with the presence of two witnesses. DRI found three pieces of tiger skin, one piece of baby rhino horn, 13.4 kgs. of elephant tusks, 290 pieces of tiger nails of total worth approximately Rs. 4, 44, 550/-. All these findings seized after weighing properly.
However, the court was dealing with completely different sets of facts and circumstances. As there was some suspicion regarding the manner and mode of search and seizure done by the Officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) because there were no documents of search and seizer authorization and no information given to the local police station while investigation process. None of the other DRI officers gave their oral representation regarding this raid. The court allowed the DRI authorities to come up with an affidavit trough an appropriate officer of the said department but they presented only a xerox copy and no one came forward for presenting a said document on oath.
JUDGEMENT
The petitioner was acquitted from all the charges under Section 40(2) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 read with Section 51(1-A) of the said Act. So, the petitioner is on bail and discharged from the bail bonds too.