Father of man who killed tigress Avni threatens to drag Maneka Gandhi to court

The father of the man, who killed tigress Avni in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, has threatened to sue Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi. Claiming that his son, Shahfat Ali Khan, killed the tigress in self-defence, he accused the Union minister of making “baseless allegations”.

“My son killed Avni tigress in self-defence as attempt to tranquillise failed and tigress was going to attack. We are going to take legal opinion and we are thinking of suing Minister Maneka Gandhi for making baseless allegations against us,” father of the shooter told news agency ANI.

Shahfat Ali Khan also came out in his defence, asserting that he has never killed any animal without proper government order.

Slamming Maneka Gandhi without naming her, Khan said, “People sitting in AC rooms and levelling allegations against us is not right. There is no FIR in any police station or any case in court against me. Till now I haven’t killed any animal without proper government order.”

This comes days after Maneka Gandhi criticised the Maharashtra government over the killing of the tigress, terming it as a case of “brutal murder”. She had also demanded that Maharashtra Minister of Finance and Planning - Forests, Sudhir Mungantiwar, should be asked to step down.

“Tigress #Avni could have been saved if Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar had been little more patient, sensitive and persistent. Request you to fix responsibility of killing&consider removing the minister from his post,” the Union minister had said.

On Sunday, in a series of tweets, she had accused Mungantiwar of giving orders for the killing despite several requests from many stakeholders.

The Maharashtra minister had hit back at Maneka, even as he justified the killing of the tigress, who is suspected to have killed at least 14 people in the past two years. Mungantiwar had said that though he considered the life of the tigress important, he also felt that human life was no less important.

“If party chief and Maharashtra CM think that I am a burden then they can remove me. This can't be decided by Maneka Ji (Gandhi) and, moreover, she is not authorised to do so...She (Maneka Gandhi) should work against malnutrition and child deaths, rather than seeking someone's resignation. I also think tigers are important but I feel human life is equally important. Don't know what she doesn't understand,” he had said.