ORDER :

1. This Criminal Revision Petition is directed against the judgment dated 23.05.2003 in Crl. Appeal Nos. 47/2000, 44/2000 and connected cases on the file of the Additional Sessions Judge (Ad-hoc), Kalpetta, confirming the conviction and sentence rendered in C.C No. 671/1996 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Sultan Bethery. The revision petitioners are accused Nos. 1 and 4 in C.C. No. 671/1996 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Sultan Bethery and the 1st appellant in Crl. Appeal No. 47/2000 and the appellant in Crl. Appeal No. 44/2000 respectively on the file of the Additional Sessions Judge (Ad-hoc), Kalpetta. The offences alleged against the accused are punishable under Sections 9, 29, 31, 40(2) and 49-B(ia) read with Section 51 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’).

2. The prosecution case in brief is hereunder:

On 06.07.1995, while the forest guards, Kurichiat Section were engaged in patrol duty in and around the reserved forest, they had located carcass of a wild elephant at Dhodakulasi in Kurichiat reserve forest in Wynad Wild Life Sanctuary. They had noticed that the tusk of the eleph