Court approved tigress Avni's killing, says SC; clears official

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday closed the case seeking contempt action against senior Maharashtra officials for rewarding people who had killed an alleged 'man-eater' tigress 'Avni' in Yavatmal district in 2018 after it was informed that the killing was approved by the top court.

A bench of Chief Justice Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, which had earlier issued notice for initiating contempt action Maharashtra principal secretary Vikas Kharge and eight others, permitted the animal rights activist Sangeeta Dogra to withdraw her plea.

During the hearing conducted through video conferencing, the bench told Dogra that the state government in its reply has said that the decision to kill the man eating tigress was approved by this Court.

"We cannot say that the tigress was not a man eater and review the earlier decision of the court," the bench said, adding that if the villagers celebrated that they were relieved by the killing then how it can be taken note of by the authorities.

Dogra, appearing in person, said that correct facts were not put before the court.