Atram shot deer, saw it being cut
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25/08/2008
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Asian Age (New Delhi)
BY VILAS TOKALE
MUMBAI
Former Maharash tra minister Dharmarao Atram not only killed the endangered chinkara but also "watched it being cut into pieces by his partners in crime'.
This has been revealed in statements of eyewitnesses submitted to the high court which rejected Atram's bail plea and asked him to surrender before the forest subdivisional officer at Bhor in Pune district on August 28.
The statements make it clear that the chinkara killing was pre-planned and Atram, then a minister, had set out for the hunt from Mumbai, carrying the telescopic gun used to kill the chinkara. An extra vehicle and plastic bags were arranged to transport the animal.
The statements by Atram's bodyguard Avinash Natekar, driver Sham Jadhav and two others, submitted to the court, have dis closed the sequence of events which led to the animal killings.
On June 13, Atram contacted his old friend Ravi Sorap, who lives in Mumbai, and asked him to