CBI opposes Olympian’s plea to allow delayed appeal against conviction

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 17

The CBI has opposed Olympian and Arjuna awardee Gurbir Singh Sandhu’s plea for condonation of delay in filing an appeal against his conviction in a poaching case.

In May last year, Sandhu was found guilty in a poaching case and released on probation of one year. He appealed against the order but after the stipulated time.

In his appeal, the former international trap shooter had stated that his 86-year-old mother was a heart patient and needed medical help. Hence, he had to stay with her and get her medical assistance.

The CBI opposed the plea saying that Sandhu had not attached any documents to substantiate his claim.

The CBI had not filed a reply to his appeal even after eight months of Sandhu’s appeal. However, it has now sought dismissal of the appeal itself saying that Sandhu has failed to explain the delay in filing the appeal as required by law.

The case

The 2001 Arjuna awardee was convicted under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, but released on probation of one year by a court in May last year. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him. He was released on submitting a surety bond of Rs 1 lakh.

Sandhu was held guilty of possessing tusks of wild boar without a licence under Section 51 of the Act.

The CBI seizure included a pair of sambar horns and 33 wild boar tusks, along with other incriminating material like four video cassettes, 151 photographs and 12 rolls of negatives allegedly containing shooting adventures.

Sandhu could not give a declaration of the eight wild boar tusks.

In his appeal, Sandhu had stated that wild boars had no commercial, medicinal or religious value. Also, they were considered vermin in many states as they destroy crops and thus their population had to be brought down to manageable levels. He had also said 25 out of the 33 tusks had been passed on to him by his father and were declared under the Amnesty Scheme while eight were not required to be declared.

Sandhu’s son Manavjit Singh, also an Olympian and Arjuna awardee, was booked in the case but the CBI had dropped his name from the chargesheet, as no case was made out against him.

Following the case, the UT Wildlife Department had also conducted an inquiry in which it was concluded that it was a case of poaching as per the Wildlife Protection Act.