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Stray leopard shot dead, Forest dept to file case

Last Updated 17 February 2018, 18:57 IST

A leopard, that had strayed into residential areas three days ago, was shot dead on Saturday by a cop triggering protests from the forest department.

The forest department has sought registration of an FIR against the police.

According to sources, the leopard, which had been dodging forest officials for the past three days, entered a house in Ashiana locality in the morning.

A police team that was sent to control the crowd and keep the people away to enable the forest officials to tranquillise the animal, managed to pin it inside a room.

The leopard reportedly attacked the cops prompting an inspector to open fire at the big cat. The bullet killed the leopard on the spot, sources said.

Lucknow police Deepak Kumar said that the cop shot at the animal after he came under attack and sustained injuries. "It was an act of bravery," Kumar said.

Forest officials, however, said that their permission was required to shoot the animal. "The animal had not been declared a man-eater....it could easily have been tranquillised," said a senior UP forest official here.

"It is an offence under the Wild Life Act and we will lodge an FIR against the cop and other police personnel," he added.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav took a dig at the BJP government saying that it had started "encounters" of animals also apparently referring to the encounter spree by the state police.

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(Published 17 February 2018, 16:16 IST)

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