The main legal point established in the judgment is the admissibility of evidence and the authority to file a complaint under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

ORDER :

This petition under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. has been filed for quashing the proceedings of Criminal Case No.1648/2017 pending before Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sagar, arising out of complaint filed by the Deputy Conservator of Forest and In-Charge of Regional Tiger Strike Force Sagar (M.P.) in connection with P.O.R.No.28060/02 registered at Forest Department, Tiger Reserve Force, Sagar under Section 2, 9, 39, 44, 48A, 49B, 51, 52 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”).

2. Brief facts of the case which are relevant for the disposal of this petition are that as per the prosecution case, red crowned roof turtles are very rare turtles found only in the ecosystem of river Chambal. It is on the verge of extinction. It is on the red list of IUCN. It is also placed at serial 14B of Part-II of Schedule I appended to the Wild Life Protection Act. Forest officials posted at Regional Tiger Strike Force, Sagar apprehended co-accused Azad and on the information of Azad they raided the house of co-accused Nandlal and seized 300 gram (50 pieces) of scales of Pangolin from the house of Nandlal and registered P.O.R.No.28060/02 for the offence punishable under Sections 2, 9, 39, 44, 48A, 49B, 51, 52 of the Act and investigated the matter. During investigation, forest officials arrested many other co-accused persons. On 10/06/017 they arrested co-accused Ajay Singh and Sushri Shraddha Pandre, Deputy Conservator of Forest/In-Charge of Tiger Strike Force Sagar recorded his statement under Section 50 (8) of the Act. From his statement it was revealed that he was involved in transportation and smuggling of red crowned roof turtles, exclusively found in Chambal River. It was also learnt that co-accused Ajay Singh had business dealings with applicant Thameem Ansari and he was confined in Central Jail, Chennai in connection with DRI Crime No.27/2017 under Section 135 of the Customs Act, 1992. So, Sushri Shraddha Pandre arrested applicant Thameem Ansari on 11.10.2017 in the present case. Applicant Tameem Ansari disclosed in his statements to the competent Forest Authority under Section 50 (8) of the Act that in the year 2014, he came in contact with a person named Benty in Sri Lanka. He told him that there is a great demand of turtles in Hong Kong and Malaysia. He also showed photographs of turtles found in India on Internet and face-book and thereafter he contacted co-accused Ajay Singh, who delivered him such turtles. He purchased 450 turtles of three different varieties including expensive red crowned roof turtles for a sum of Rs.3 lacs. These turtles were transported in the Month of September, 2016 in his Car No.TN-38-AC-300 from Agra to Chennai. These turtles were to be sent from Tuticorin to Sri Lanka, however the DRI seized those turtles and he was arrested along with his agent. After being released on bail, he expanded his network and came in contact with co-accused persons namely Manivannan and Sanil and traded in rare turtles. In August, 2017 Officers of DRI seized 2500 live turtles from the house of his agent Venkatesh and he was again arrested. On that Sushri Shraddha Pandre also collected the documents from R/O case file No.DRI/CZU/TTN/VIII/48/13/INT/1/16 Chennai and R/O case file No.DRI/CZU/VIII/48/Enq-1/INT/27/17 Chennai and Filed supplementary complaint against the applicant on 05/12/2017 before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sagar in Criminal Case No.1648/2017, which was already pending in his Court for the offences punishable under Section 2, 9, 39, 44, 48A, 49B, 51, 52 of the Act.

3. Earlier, on 11/07/2017 Sushri Shraddha Pandre had filed a complaint in P.O.R.No.18060/02 against Nandlal, Azad, Ajay, Sampatiya, Mannimannyan, Khokon, Sanil, Ajay, Irfan, Shailendra, Sultan, Khoka, Mishrilal and Tameem. Thereafter, she again filed a supplementary complaint against co-accused Kamal and Vijay on 21/07/2017 and against applicant Thameem Ansari on 05/12/2017. Being aggrieved by the filing of