Earth Brigade Foundation claimed that the hunters Shafat Ali Khan and Asghar Ali Khan had no valid documents of guns
Nagpur: An NGO, Earth Brigade Foundation in an additional affidavit filed in Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has made some shocking revelations in the killing of Tigress Avni (T-1) in Pandharkawada forest range of Yavatmal district in the year 2018.
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Wednesday 05 Feb. 2025
The tigress was shot by Shafat Ali Khan and Asghar Ali Khan , shooters from Hyderabad in Yavatmal district after he was engaged by the Forest Department to eliminate the “man-eater” tigress that, by then, was believed to be responsible for the death of 13 villagers. The killing had witnessed a national outrage.
The NGO, through the additional affidavit, has said that Hyderabad Police Commissioner had not provided information about arms licences of the special squad hunters Shafat Ali Khan and Asghar Ali Khan who were part of the hunting team. An application was submitted to Yavatmal Superintendent of Police in March 2021 to get copies of arms licences of the duo, but these too have not been provided yet, the Earth Brigade Foundation said.
The affidavit added that before the tigress was killed, complaints were made to Forest officials about Shafat Ali Khan’s misbehaviour. Yet they did not check his details. The Yavatmal SP was not informed that Asghar Ali Khan was included in the special squad formed to eliminate Avni which means he was not officially part of the team. Avni was allegedly killed by a shot fired by Asghar Ali.
The Foundation has alleged that the Forest Department was trying to cover up this fact and demanded a thorough probe into the matter.
Notably, following a rap from the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court on the Forest Department’s lack of accountability, the Maharashtra Government had constituted a six-member committee to hold those accountable in the shooting of the ‘problematic’ tigress, Avni (T1). Responding to a PIL, the High Court had criticised the Forest Department for negligence in fixing accountability of officers who, prima facie, did not perform their duty properly during the shooting of the tigress.
Meanwhile, a report in a local English daily said that in the tigress Avni killing case, the advocates for government-hired shooters Shafat Ali and Asghar Ali will file their reply on Thursday to an affidavit by petitioners Earth Brigade Foundation (EBF) in which various allegations have been made.
Advocate Aadil Mirza, who along with advocate Masood Shareef, is representing the father-son duo said that they could not file the reply to the petitioner’s affidavit due to some technical reasons, but it will be done on Thursday.
Justices SB Shukre and GA Sanap granted Mirza’s request to hear the matter in two weeks.
EBF’s affidavit alleges various improprieties on part of the respondents, which include withholding information from the police and forest authorities, inconsistencies in the earlier statements and no substantiation of the self defence claim in the post-mortem report.
The report further said that Advocate Shreerang Bhandarkar, who represents EBF, said the affidavit seeks answers also for anomalies found in arms licences of the respondents. Advocate Sejal Lakhani, who is assisting in the case, said EBF’s PIL is seeking the appointment of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to re-investigate the evidences of the killing of the T1 Tigress Avni and re-examining all the reports extensively, along with other related demands.
