Zeenews, Wednesday, August 25, 2010, 16:36

New Delhi: Notorious poacher Sansar Chand was Wednesday sentenced to six years jail term by a Delhi court in a case relating to seizure of a leopard skin here in 1995, saying such offence should be dealt with "iron hands".

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 that the offences relating to wildlife must be dealt with strict punishment to bring down poaching incidents across the country.

The court raised concern over the rising menace of poaching.
"Despite various steps taken by the government across the globe, the offence 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.

PTI

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