Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 21
While allowing bail to tattoo artist Kamaljit Singh and his manager Deepak for allegedly keeping a monkey (rhesus macaque) in illegal captivity and exhibiting it by sharing its pictures, along with him, on his Instagram account, Lovejinder Kaur, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) said the investigating officer could not produce any document to prove that at the time of the arrest, as per the directions issued by the Wildlife Crime Investigation manual, photographs and fingerprints of the suspects were taken and guidelines issued by the Supreme Court were followed.
On Wednesday, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department had sought 14-day remand of Kamaljeet and Deepak after they were arrested for violating the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Kamaljeet owns a tattoo studio in Sector 35 here. Officials of the department arrested the suspects on a complaint that they kept the monkey and posted its photographs and videos on Instagram.
The department sought the remand to rescue the wild animal and complete the investigation in the case.
On the other hand, Harlove Singh Rajput, counsel for the suspects, submitted that they had been detained illegally.
After hearing the arguments, the court said the investigating officer took divergent views in the present case.
“On one hand, a complaint under Section 9 read with 2 (16) B, 39, and 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act-1972 was filed against the suspects, whereas on the other their remand was sought to rescue the wild animal,” the court said.
In their statements, the suspects denied having any animal in their custody. They were already in custody since August 19, but the investigating officer could not produce any record regarding the progress of the investigation. Hence, further custody of the suspects was not justified, the court said.
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