New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed an appeal by notorious poacher Sansar Chand who had challenged his conviction and five-year sentence for selling leopard and tiger skins.
This judgment was pronounced by the apex court bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice T.S. Thakur.
Chand, who is undergoing a five-year jail term, moved the apex court challenging his conviction in a case involving the smuggling of parts of tiger and leopard bodies in Rajasthan in 2003.
In 2006, Chand had admitted to selling 470 tiger skins and 130 leopard skins to customers in Nepal and Tibet. He made this confession before the Central Bureau of Investigation.
On Oct 4, the Supreme Court slammed Chand for killing tigers, leopards and other endangered species for commercial gains and said the day was not far when human skin would also be traded.
In a strong indictment of Chand’s poaching activities, the court had said: ‘The population of tigers and leopards was declining because you (Chand) are trading in skins of tigers and leopards. There is no tiger left in Sariska (Tiger Reserve).’
‘For your appetite for more money, tomorrow you will even sell human skins,’ the court had chided the petitioner.
