Bengaluru: In a first of its kind case, the Bengaluru rural police have booked and recorded statements of senior forest officials over the recent leopard escape from Bannerghatta Biological Park(BBP), fixing responsibility on forest officials for dereliction of duty and negligence.
Bannerghatta police station witnessed high drama on Thursday when the BBP Executive Director, Santhosh Kumar, Assistant Conservator of Forest, and the Range Forest Officer were summoned by the police for recording their statements on a complaint lodged by an environmentalist over the leopard escape on February 15. It might be recalled that the leopard was captured with great difficulty from Vibgyor School in South East Bengaluru after a five-hour long operation which left a tiger conservationist and scientist, Sanjay Gubbi, seriously injured.
According to the police, the complaint by an environmentalist, Mohan Raj, was lodged on March 7 at Bannerghatta police station alleging that it was due to sheer negligence that the leopard, which was captured after a grueling operation, was allowed to escape right under the nose of forest officials. The police registered an FIR under IPC section 289 – Negligent conduct with respect to an animal- and subsequently issued summon notices to the three senior forest officials.
Mr Santhosh Kumar along with the ACF and the RFO arrived with their advocate on Thursday afternoon at the police station.
“I was given a notice on Tuesday that a case had been filed against me, ACF and RFO. We had sent an officer on Wednesday, but police insisted that I come in person. We went to the station at 1 pm, and initially they made us wait till the computer operator arrived. Finally, at 2.30 pm, they started to record my statement. But each time, they made glaring mistakes, and they had to redo the whole process. That is when I started to realize that they were deliberately harassing us,”he said.
“Finally, when the statement was recorded, they said I had to wait until the Sub-Inspector came and at 6 pm, when I told them I had to leave, the policemen gheraoed my car. It was only after I called my senior officials they let me go from the station,” said Mr Santhosh Kumar, Executive Director, BBP.
The IFS association has called for a meeting at Aranya Bhavan on Saturday, and will take up the matter with the Forest Minister and the Home Minister.
