Shahtoosh smuggling conviction: Delhi court jails Jaipur gallerist

New Delhi: In a uncommon condemnation nether Wildlife Protection Act, a tribunal convicted a Jaipur creation assemblage proprietor for attempting to illegally export Shahtoosh shawls - made from hairsbreadth of the critically endangered Tibetan antelope - successful a CBI lawsuit that dragged connected for 17 years.The main judicial magistrate astatine Delhi's Rouse Avenue territory tribunal sentenced connected March 12 Syed Shahid Ahmed Kashani, proprietor of Indian Art Gallery successful Jaipur, to 3 years of elemental imprisonment and imposed connected him a good of Rs 50,000. The seized shawls volition go govt property.The Tibetan antelope, locally known arsenic Chiru, is listed successful Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, making its commercialized strictly prohibited.

Shahtoosh shawl commercialized has been banned globally since 1975 nether an planetary convention."What makes this lawsuit unsocial is the coordination among 4 agencies - Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, CBI, Customs and Wildlife Institute of India - for astir 17 years," said the situation ministry.WCCB had detected 1,290 Shahtoosh shawls successful an export consignment astatine IGI airdrome and filed a ailment with CBI successful 2009. Forensic probe by WII confirmed beingness of Tibetan antelope hairsbreadth successful 41 shawls. "The lawsuit is among the earliest instances of a Shahtoosh smuggling lawsuit being investigated by CBI astatine the lawsuit of WCCB," situation ministry said.