Madhya Pradesh High Court Denies Bail To Man Accused Of Leopard Hunting, Cites Severity Of Offence

The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has denied bail to a man accused of being involved in Leopard hunting booked under the Wildlife Protection Act after noting the severity of the offence alleged. 

Justice Devnarayan Mishra in his order observed, “I have gone through the post-mortem report of leopard. In the postmortem report, it has been clearly mentioned that the leopard died due to electric current. Remains of quills of porcupine were found in the place of incident i.e. in the house of applicant. From the spot map, it is found that electric line has been passed and as per the prosecution case, the applicant after fixing the small woods in a pattern, G.I. Cable was rolled in them and electric current was supplied and when the leopard came in the contact of that trap, leopard died. Looking to the facts and severity of the offence the Court is not inclined to grant bail to the applicant.”

The petitioner had moved the plea seeking regular bail for offences punishable under Sections 9 (Prohibition of hunting), 2(16) (Definition of Hunting), 39 (Wild animals, etc., to be Government property), 50 (Power of entry, search, arrest and detention), 51 (Penalties) and 52 (Attempts and abetment) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

The counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has been falsely implicated and was arrested only on the basis of the dog of the forest squad, who came in his house and barked at him. He said that the petitioner has not committed any offence; whereas he said that some other persons were involved but the forest authorities, based on quills of porcupine which were found burnt near the petitioner's house, had arrested him. 

It was submitted that the petitioner belongs to the Tribal Community and resides in the forest territory. It was argued that the petitioner did not make any trap by which the leopard was killed. Thus, the counsel prayed for the applicant to be released on bail.

The counsel for the State submitted that during the search, the dogs of the forest squad went to the house of the petitioner where parts of a porcupine's quills were found burnt in his house. The State said that "remains of the porcupine were found on the spot and one leopard was found dead".

The prosecution said that as per the post-mortem report, the leopard died due to electrocution thus, the petitioner hunted the leopard  which comes in the First Schedule of the Wildlife Protection Act. Thus, a "grievous offence" has been committed by the petitioner, state's counsel said. 

The court referred to the post-mortem report which clearly mentioned that the leopard died due to electric current. Moreover, remains of quills of porcupine were found in the place of incident i.e. in the house of applicant. The court further referred to the spot map wherein it was found that an electric line had been passed and as per the prosecution case, the applicant after fixing the small woods in a pattern, rolled G.I. Cable in them and supplied electric current to it. Thus, the leopard came in the contact of that trap and died.

Thus, considering the severity of the offence, the court dismissed the bail application.

Case Title: Munim Singh Gond Versus The State Of Madhya Pradesh, Misc. Criminal Case No. 55260 of 2024

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (MP) 24

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