Rules flouted in Mohanlal’s ivory possession case

Web Desk
In a shocking turn of events in actor Mohanlal’s ivory possession case,documents from the forest department revealed that it issued ownership certificates for four elephant tusks to actor Mohanlal by violating the “due process” of the Wildlife Act and without holding “proper inquiry regarding the legitimacy of tusks and ivory”.

Recently, the government had issued a No Objection Certificate(NOC) for withdrawing prosecution against the actor for the possession of ivory. The violations were highlighted in a statement prepared by Surendrakumar, the present Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW).The statement will be submitted before the Kerala High Court.

It is reported that the document is forwarded to the Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and Wildlife Department.It was made available to all the senior law officers of the State and the Forest Department

On his application, the government had on December 16, 2015 issued an order declaring the ownership of the elephant tusks to Mr. Mohanlal. However, the government order was not published in the official gazette. The possession of ivory and tusks surfaced following an income tax raid at the Kochi residence of the actor.

The documents revealed that during the income tax raid the “inquiry regarding the source or legitimacy of possession of the ivory artifacts by the actor was not conducted by the Assistant Conservator of Forest (Social Forestry). Based on those inventory reports, the Chief Wildlife Warden issued a Certificate of Ownership. Ownership certificate can be issued only after making inquiries and preparing inventories.

The Act specifies that certificate shall be issued to a person, who is in lawful possession of any wild animal or any animal article, trophy or uncured trophy. The statement said, “the then Chief Wildlife Warden relied only on the statements of Mr. Mohanlal that these artifacts were procured through inheritance. No attempt was made to verify the truthfulness of the statement of Mr. Mohanlal.”

The “possession of elephant tusks and ivory artifacts by V. Mohanlal is in violation of the above legal provisions. It is also evident that V. Mohanlal was not in lawful possession of the tusks when the certificate of ownership was issued to him,” the document said.