Himalayan News Service

Chandigarh, June 14:

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, who is accused of hunting an endangered blackbuck, could be in deeper trouble for allegedly unaccounted animal trophies adorning the walls of his ancestral home near Gurgaon, say Haryana wildlife officials. The officials are now set to verify the animal trophies at his Ibrahim palace in Pataudi village of the state. State Chief Wildlife Warden KL Manhas said a physical verification of the former Indian cricket captain’s palace would be carried out shortly to find out where he got the animal trophies — most being of protected species of deer — from. “He does not have the certificate for at least a dozen of these animal trophies,” Manhas said. Pataudi and seven others were caught by the Haryana police near Jhajjar town June 3 night with the carcasses of a blackbuck — a protected animal — and two rabbits. A case of poaching was registered and one of them arrested.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today refused Pataudi interim bail in the case. Possession

of animal trophies of endangered species is an offence under the Wildlife Protection Act.