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Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Digvinay Singh also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him while awarding the maximum jail term prescribed under the Wildlife Protection Act. The court said the offences relating to wildlife must be dealt with strict punishment to bring down poaching incidents across the country. The court also raised concern over the rising menace of poaching.
"Despite various steps taken by governments across the globe, offences relating to wildlife are refusing to come down. In the Act, stringent punishment is provided which is awarded time and again to contain the offence, but still the situation does not seem to be improving," the court said.
"In my considered view, such repeated offenders need to be dealt with iron hands, more particularly when there have been previous convictions and involvement in other similar offences," the judge noted.
Text: PTI
During the argument on sentence, Madhur Jain, counsel for the convict, sought a lenient view on the ground that he was ill and has been in jail since 2005.
The case against Sansar Chand was also pursued by the Wildlife Trust of India, through counsel Saurabh Sharma. Sansar Chand is also facing prosecution under the stringent MCOCA law.
He was arrested after the Delhi police, acting on a tip-off, seized the skin of endangered leopards from his possession that was hidden in a canvas bag in Sadar Bazar area of New Delhi on July 17, 1995. It was his fourth conviction in the several cases lodged against him under the Act.
Sansar Chand's criminal activities have reached such severity that he was called the 'Veerappan of North India'. He is currently lodged in a Jaipur jail in connection with another offence.