Five get 3 years in jail for otter poaching

Surat: Five persons were sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment for poaching smooth-coated otter in Kaprada taluka of Valsad district.
The Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) in Kaprada found the accused — Bapubhai Ozariya, Jyotindra Pandya, Chirayu Patel, Ashok Bariya and Indrajeetsinh Vaghela guilty under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of the convicts.
According to case details, a team of forest officers from Valsad raided Amdha village in Kaprada taluka on June 1, 2020 and found a one-year-old female otter in possession of Ozariya, who had hidden the animal in a plastic container.
The other accused Pandya from Nadiad, Patel from Vadodara, Bariya from Vansda and Vaghela from Jaspur had come to buy the otter. They were to place a bid for the wild animal, but were nabbed before that. The smooth-coated otter is protected under schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act.
Following the raid, the forest department booked the accused and filed a chargesheet before the local court.
Ozariya in his statement said that he had caught the animal from Dodhla river near Amdha village and was about to sell it. “The accused had committed cruelty to wild animals for their own benefit. The accused had come to purchase the wild animal for use in some black magic ritual. In this modern age, people like these commit a crime for their own purpose. Also, the victim (animal) is unable to come to seek justice. The accused had attempted to rob the natural resources and therefore such crimes need to be brought under control,” JMFC Dileep Savaliya, observed in his judgment.