Ajmer: The law has finally caught up with the kingpin of Indian wildlife traders, Sansar Chand, who was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment, by a court in Ajmer in the western state of Rajasthan. Sansar Chand, who had been eluding the law for the last ten years, was today sentenced by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Ajmer , Mr. Ravi Sharma, in a case related to the possession of two leopard skins. The main accused of this case, Balwan Singh, who was acting on behalf of Chand, also received a similar sentence. Three other involved persons received lesser punishments.

This is the strongest punishment ever awarded under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 for trading in wildlife articles. The law calls for a compulsory sentence of a minimum of three years which can go upto 7 years for repeated offences against a Schedule I species.

Sansar Chand is a member of a tribe of traditional traders in wildlife from western India called Giharas . Though not hunters themselves, Giharas are close to other traditional hunter tribes who are responsible for much of the poaching that feeds the illegal market. He was first arrested in 1974 at the age of 18 for trading in tiger skins but the Supreme Court reduced his sentence, saying he was too young to be sentenced.

Sansar Chand, then went on to become the biggest skin smuggler of India . He has evaded arrests and eluded a severe jail sentence because he was clever enough to keep himself at a distance from the trade. As a result it was virtually impossible to catch him red-handed.

“This notorious trader single-handedly ran this business for two decades from his headquarters in Old Delhi and always managed to get bail when arrested in the past. He has been convicted only once and received a minor sentence, though was facing trial in over a dozen wildlife cases, many going back to over a decade,” Ashok Kumar, senior advisor and trustee, Wildlife Trust of India, who has been following chand for the last two decades, said. The case was being closely followed by WTI lawyers.

According to Kumar, the main accused Balwan Singh, was caught in January 2003, with two leopard skins at the Bhilwara railway station in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. Upon interrogation, Balwan confessed in the presence of a magistrate and a forest officer that he was paid Rs.5,000/- to supply the skins to Sansar Chand. The wildlife law amendment in 2002 makes it difficult for a repeated schedule I offender and a convicted person to be released on bail.

Lesser jail sentences were awarded to all the accused in this case under other sections of the law which will run concurrently. A total fine of Rs. 60,000/- has also been imposed on Sansar Chand under various sections of the law as well as on the other main convicts, in default they are to serve an additional year of imprisonment.

An advocate of Wildlife Trust of India was present in the court when the sentence was delivered. WTI has pursued the matter through various courts, where Sansar Chand had filed seven diversionary cases to obtain bail and had used other legal ploys to evade justice. His petitions twice came up to the Supreme Court and were dismissed. The well reasoned judgment running into 126 pages has traced the history of the case, relevant laws and judgments applying to crime against wildlife and nature.

Pic courtesy: Express