Overview
- Rouse Avenue District Court in Delhi convicted Jaipur gallery owner Syed Shahid Ahmed Kashani on March 12 and sentenced him to three years in jail with a Rs 50,000 fine.
- The court added concurrent two-year terms under Sections 40 and 49 of the Wildlife Protection Act and ordered the seized shawls to become government property.
- The prosecution capped a 17-year investigation that began when WCCB flagged 1,290 shawls at Delhi airport in December 2008 and referred the probe to the CBI in 2009, which led its first wildlife case.
- Two rounds of Wildlife Institute of India tests confirmed Tibetan antelope hair in 41 shawls, and the judge rejected defense claims that the goods were machine-made pashmina.
- Shahtoosh is made by killing the Tibetan antelope, which is protected under India’s Schedule I and a global CITES ban, and the ruling underscores the use of forensic science to enforce those protections.