Mumbai: Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Partyled Mahar-ashtra government over the “ghastly murder” of man-eating tigress Avni, calling it a “straight case of crime”.
Reacting to the killing, Ms Gandhi via a series of tweets lashed out at the state government for giving the orders to kill her despite opposition from many stakeholders. “I am deeply saddened by the way tigress Avni has been brutally murdered in Yavatmal,” she tweeted.
Avni was shot dead by sharpshooter Asgar Ali at compartment no. 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of the Ralegaon police station. “It is nothing but a straight case of crime. Despite several requests from many stakeholders, Sudhir Mungantiwar, minister for forests, Maharashtra, gave orders for the killing,” she said in another tweet.
She said she was going to take up the matter ‘very strongly’ with state chief minister Devendra Fad-navis. Excoriating the sharpshooter, the minister questioned the state regarding its decision to hire Mr Khan, “Shafat Ali Khan (father of Asgar Ali) has killed 3 tigers, at least 10 leopards, a few elephants and 300 wild boars in Chandrapur, Mahar-ashtra. He is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad.” She continued, “I fail to understand why a state government should even bother about such a man let alone hire his services.”
