Himalayan News Service

Jhajjar, June 18:

Former Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi made a dramatic surrender before the sessions court here today, a day after the rejection of his anticipatory bail plea in the blackbuck killing case. Pataudi, accompanied by his lawyers, arrived at the sessions court and gave himself up before Chief Judicial Magistrate Sudhir Jiwan even as police had intensified the search. From the sessions court, he was taken to the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Police where an investigating team will interrogate him for a couple of hours. He had sought anticipatory bail on the ground that he had been implicated in the case and he was not involved in the killing of the endangered blackbuck that is a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. But the Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected the plea. Pataudi’s lawyers are likely to move an application for a regular bail after the surrender proceedings are over.

Pataudi and seven others, including his industrialist friend Shashi Singh, were named in a complaint registered by Jhajjar Police on June 5 after they were caught during a routine check near this town June 3 night. A dead blackbuck and two dead rabbits were recovered from their possession but police had let them off a few hours later. Pataudi and six others had gone underground since then though the police was able to arrest one person, Madan Singh. Haryana police had raided Pataudi’s properties in Delhi and the Pataudi village near Gurgaon. Most of the accused did not appear before Jhajjar police despite three notices sent to them.