Parakeets in Patiala: 13 birds seized at IGI brought in as case property
New Delhi: Heads turned as two cages were brought into courtroom No. 26 at Patiala House on Wednesday. Inside these cages were 13 parakeets brought in by customs officers as “case property”. Bringing animals or birds as case properties to the court is unheard of.
These protected birds were seized from an Uzbek national on Tuesday night after he was apprehended at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
While the court sent the man to a 14-day judicial custody on the request of the customs department, these birds were handed over to the wildlife inspector for their release.
It created a flutter when these red-ringed birds were brought into the court. The medium-sized birds were being fed apples by the officials. All 13 were docile and refrained from squawking. With the birds being everyone’s centre of attention, the proceedings began.
Customs moved a plea before chief metropolitan magistrate Manish Khurana, stating that Anvarjon Rakhmat Jonov was stopped at IGI while going to board a flight to Tashkent. This was after the security personnel detected some suspicious items in his bag during scanning around 7am. The parakeets were concealed inside six shoe boxes placed in the bag carried by Jonov, it was claimed.
It created a flutter when these red-ringed birds were brought into the court. The medium-sized birds were being fed apples by the officials. All 13 were docile and refrained from squawking. With the birds being everyone’s centre of attention, the proceedings began.
Customs moved a plea before chief metropolitan magistrate Manish Khurana, stating that Anvarjon Rakhmat Jonov was stopped at IGI while going to board a flight to Tashkent. This was after the security personnel detected some suspicious items in his bag during scanning around 7am. The parakeets were concealed inside six shoe boxes placed in the bag carried by Jonov, it was claimed.
To ascertain the exact description and status of the birds, the help of the wildlife department was sought. The wildlife inspector gave an identification report, which confirmed that they belong to the Psittacidae family. The rose-ringed parakeet, or Psittacula krameri manillensis, is a medium-sized green bird with a red ring around its neck.
Judge Khurana was also informed that the accused admitted that he was about to smuggle these birds out of India. The plea read, “Accused has violated the provisions of the Customs Act, therefore, he was put under arrest…. He be remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.” The remand plea also said the “case property is being produced with the request to dispose of/released as the same may be lost”. Jonov’s case attracted Sections 132 (false declaration and documents) and 135 (evasion of duty) of the Customs Act, 1962, a customs official said.
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