As per current news reports, international golfer Jyoti Randhawa was recently arrested by the Uttar Pradesh forest department for poaching charges. The police made the arrest on Wednesday at the tiger reserve in Dudhwa where along with the perpetrator was present skydiver Mahesh Birajdar. He was formerly working at the Navy and has a criminal record for stealing funds during from a restricted area during the World Parachuting Championship in 2008.

Recently, the police and field staff from the forest department were suspicious for the past 3 days regarding the frequent visits by Jyoti to the reserve. Keeping their eyes open they soon tracked Randhawa’s car as it entered the reserve at dawn. Having a mansion nearby, Randhawa expected to not be tracked on wintry dawn.

However, as the staff chased them and detained his SUV, they recovered the dead carcass of a freshly killed jungle fowl and 2-3 days old hide of a Sambar deer. Apart from these, they discovered a 22 caliber rifle along with a range finding binocular which proves that he was out to hunt.

Now, as the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 under schedules III and IV commit to the protection of jungle fowl and Sambar deer, Randhawa had breached the rules. The consequence of poaching these animals is a minimum fine of Rs 50,000-2, 00,000 along with imprisonment for 3-7 years.

As per news reports, Randhawa’s vehicle was captured around 5.30 in the Motipur range falling in the Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary. Now, this being a part of Dudhwa specifically proves that Randhawa was hunting inside a reserve that strictly went against poaching.

Randhawa when confronted initially claimed that the hide discovered was of a boar which entered his farmhouse. Now, this goes against Randhawa as a person because initially, he led his trained dog squad to hunt for man-eating tigress. Claiming himself to be an animal lover, the fact that he hunts animals deeply goes against his perfectly painted image of propriety.