Union Minister for Women and Child development and an animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi on Saturday described the killing of tigress Avni as a "straight case of crime"

"I am definitely going to take up this case of utter lack of empathy for animals as a test case... Legally, criminally and politically," she said in a series of tweets.

She also said that she would "strongly" take up the issue of the killing of tigress Avni with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Coming down heavily on finance, planning and forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, she said that he ignored the requests of stakeholders and ordered the killing.

So far, neither Fadnavis nor Mungantiwar has responded to Maneka's statement.

She also took exception for hiring hunter and sharpshooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan for killing T1 (Avni).

"Shafath Ali Khan has killed three tigers, at least 10 leopards, a few elephants and 300 wild boars in Chandrapur. He is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad," she said, adding that she fails to understand why a state government should even bother about such a man, let alone hire his services for illegal and inhuman acts.

Maneka pointed out that so far Shafath Ali Khan used to be involved in killing animals but this time his son Ashgar too appeared in the scene.

"His son is not authorised to kill. This is patently illegal. Despite the forest officials being committed to tranquilise, capture and quarantine the tigress, the trigger-happy shooter killed it at the orders of Mungantiwar. This ghastly murder has put two cubs at the edge of a sad death in the absence of their mother," she said.