PANAJI: Almost 14 months after the tiger had been killed at Keri, the forest department filed a chargesheet in the court of the judicial magistrate first class, Valpoi but no further details were available.
Officials were tightlipped about the chargesheet and it was not known how many persons have been named in it. Additional principal conservator of forest Shashi Kumar had told reporters just over a week ago that the chargesheet would be filed soon. TOI had first reported the killing on April 13, 2009.
The big cat had been killed in a cashew plantation belonging to the Majik family in Keri after it was trapped in a cable wire snare laid along a stream. After investigations drew a blank for some time, forest officials found bones and other tiger remains on May 31, 2009 and in early June, which raised hopes among wildlife lovers of justice in the case, as the department itself was in a denial mode.
The tiger remains, including an assortment of bones, fur and teeth recovered from the site were sent to the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun for forensic tests, which was considered crucial to prove that it was indeed a tiger that had been killed.
Though the WWI preliminary report had said that the bones are not that of a tiger, another report received just a few weeks back confirmed that one sample of the remains belonged to the big cat.
During investigations, the forest department had arrested some persons belonging to Majik community and later released them.
