Overview
- A Mumbai sessions court denied bail to 36-year-old Sandeep Bidlaan on Monday, ruling that the case was not fit for release despite the completion of the investigation and filing of a chargesheet.
- Police say a Chembur decoy operation on April 23 recovered two elephant tusks weighing 11 kg and 20.6 kg and led to the arrest of four people at a hotel, with a fifth suspect arrested later.
- Prosecutors have charged the accused under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the judge said filing a chargesheet alone is not a sufficient ground for bail in serious wildlife offences.
- The prosecution relied on WhatsApp chats and photos seized from phones to link suspects to the sale and warned that releasing an accused could endanger secret informants and witnesses, while the defence says the main accused was falsely implicated and only present at the scene.
- The ruling frames wildlife trafficking as a distinct and growing threat to endangered species and could harden bail standards and emphasis on witness protection in future wildlife crime prosecutions in India.