SC asks petitioner to withdraw plea in tigress Avni case

During the hearing conducted through online mode, the Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice SA Bobde told animal rights activist Sangeeta Dogra that the Maharashtra government in its reply has said that the decision to kill the man-eating tigress Avni was approved by this Court. The apex court asked Dogra to withdraw her plea.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice SA Bobde on Friday refused to entertain the petition seeking an enquiry into the killing of tigress Avni. Bobde stated that even though it's a very serious case the bench presently cannot interfere in it.

The bench also comprising of Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian asked the petitioner, Sangeeta Dogra, a wildlife activist, to withdraw the plea and approach the court with a better case in future.

Dogra submitted on Friday that it is the responsibility of CCM that villagers do not celebrate the killing of the tigress when a probe is underway.

Read:|Court issues notice over killing of tigress

The Chief Justice countered her by saying that if the villagers are celebrating for being free of getting attacked again then how can the CCM be responsible for it.

"If to kill the tigress was ordered by this court then we are not going to review it anyway. We can look into the other aspect (celebration by villagers) but that also does not warrant any interference from the bench, officials have said that the villagers were not celebrating," said CJI Bobde.

In 2018, Avni was shot on the top court's orders as she had allegedly turned into a man-eater and had killed nearly 13 villagers within two years.

However, some discrepancies were found later in the forensic report which suggested that she was not a man-eater.

This had led to a controversy following which the matter had reached the apex court.

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