KARACHI: Fourteen infant monkeys, which were recovered from a Karachi-bound bus on Thursday, were handed over to the management of Karachi Zoological Gardens on Friday in compliance with the order of a court.

One of the 14 infant monkeys had managed to escape from court premises and officials of the Sindh wildlife department and judicial staffers finally found it on Friday.

The order to hand over the monkeys to the zoo was passed by Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Shahid Ali Memon while hearing a case pertaining to the arrest of two suspected smugglers and recovery of the 14 infant monkeys.

The investigating officer (IO) of the Sindh wildlife department had moved an application, stating that the two suspects — Junaid and Ali Bahadur — were arrested at the Toll Plaza, M-9 Motorway, on the night of July 20 from a Karachi-bound bus coming from Charsadda.

Court imposes Rs50,000 fine on two men held by wildlife dept for smuggling animals from KP

He added that the wildlife officials had recovered monkey babies kept in paper boxes meant for mango storage, which being unsafe caging facility had caused animals bruises on their bodies.

The IO also informed the court that the suspects had brought the infant monkeys, which had been illegally captured from their natural habitat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to Karachi to sell them to monkey charmers for their ‘training’ against money.

He brought to the court the 14 rescued infant monkeys to produce them before the judge as case property (evidence). However, when the judge went to a room on the upper floor of the judicial complex to inspect the rescued monkeys, one of the animals escaped.

It kept the wildlife officials and judicial staffers on their toes for around 20 hours to recapture the baby monkey, witnesses told Dawn.

The IO requested the judge to order sending the rescued animals back to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from where they had been illegally captured so that they could be released back into their natural habitat there.

At this, the judge called the senior director (recreation) of the Karachi Zoo. In compliance with the court’s directives, Additional Director Abida Raees, along with Deputy Director Dr Amir Ismail Rizvi, appeared before the court.

The court directed the wildlife department’s Game Officer Ashfaq Ali Memon and Aijaz Ali Noodani to hand over the custody of the baby monkeys to the team of the Karachi Zoo (recreation) officers present in the court for keeping them in the safe, sound and natural atmosphere, in accordance with the law.

The judge also told the game officer to keep liaison with the officers of the Karachi zoo to ensure the welfare of the baby monkeys and submit a report on compliance with the court’s directives on Aug 7.

Suspects plead guilty

The IO also requested for 14-day physical remand of the two suspects for interrogation to complete the investigation, arguing that their other accomplices involved in the offence were to be tracked down.

However, the suspects moved applications through their defence counsel, seeking the grant of post-arrest bail to them.

Meanwhile, both suspects voluntarily pleaded guilty to smuggling the infant monkeys and assured the court that they would not repeat the offense in the future.

On their admission, the judge convicted both the men and imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on each convict.

A case was registered under Sections 81(1), 94, 47, 50, 53 and 71 of the Sindh Wildlife Protection, Preve­ntion, Conse­­r­vation and Mana­gement Act, 2020 at the wildlife department.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2023