Monday, June 6 2005 15:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jhajjar (Haryana): Former Indian cricket team captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was among eight persons booked in Jhajjar today (Jun 6, 2005) on charges of poaching wild animals, including a black buck.

A case under Section 9, 39 and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, was registered at Jhajjar police station against Pataudi and his seven accomplices-Shashi Singh, Dayal Singh, Shaheed Ahmad, Daya Suddin- residents of Delhi, Mohammad Ayub Khan- resident of Gurgaon, Karam Singh and Balwan, residents of Orangpur village in the Jhajjar district.

Rohtak range Inspector General of Police (IGP) V N Rai, when contacted over telephone, confirmed the registration of case against the Nawab of Pataudi and others.

Experts from the forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Karnal were expected to arrive at Jhajjar in the morning to carryout inspection of weapons recovered from the possession of the accused along with the carcasses of a black buck and two Rabbits on Friday (Jun 3, 2005) night by the Jhajjar police near Dadanpur village in the district.

The police had recovered a rifle, a gun and some live cartridges and impounded the Jeep used by the accused.

The FIR was registered on a complaint of Jhajjar Station House Officer (SHO) Sumit Kumar and one of the accused Madan has been arrested in this connection, sources said.

Police was also contemplating action against an activist of former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi's NGO, People for Animals, Naresh Kadiyan, who allegedly exhumed the carcass of the black buck and has taken it to Delhi.

Earlier the police buried the recovered animals from after post mortem by veterinary doctors.