New Delhi, Sep 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court has restored protection from arrest to Wildlife SOS co-founder and CEO Kartick Satyanarayan in an alleged leopard poaching case.
A bench of justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Atul S Chandurkar directed Satyanarayan to now appear before the forest authorities at 11 am on September 28 and fully co-operate with the investigation.
“Without expressing any opinion on merits, we dispose of the Special Leave Petition(s) with the direction that the order passed by the High Court on September 2 in …shall continue to hold field… till disposal of the writ petitions,” the bench said.
The order came on a plea filed by Satyanarayan challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order that withdrew his interim protection from arrest in an alleged leopard poaching case.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Gwalior bench had recently dismissed two petitions filed under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and withdrawn Satyanarayan’s interim protection from arrest.
According to a news report, the high court recalled the protection after the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department alleged that Satyanarayan had suppressed a third summons and an arrest warrant issued against him.
Holding that “the petitioner, having failed to cooperate with the investigating agency despite protection, has not approached this court with clean hands”, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had withdrawn the interim protection granted to Satyanarayan.
The Forest Department had alleged that he had failed to join the investigation into the poaching of 10 leopards across Sheopur and Morena districts.
The Wildlife SOS chief has rejected the state’s description of him as absconding.
The organisation has maintained that its anti-poaching unit had assisted authorities in uncovering the alleged racket and that seeking legal protection did not amount to a refusal to cooperate with the investigation. PTI PKS ZMN
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