Chandigarh, August 26
The Punjab government today stayed the transfer orders of Puneet Goyal, facing trial in the peacock poaching case, as SDM, Pathankot. The official order of the Punjab chief secretary delivered to Goyal this evening stated that his “transfer had been stayed till further orders”.
The decision comes just two days after the government on its own had transferred Goyal back as SDM, Pathankot, the position he was holding when he was allegedly caught with peacocks and partridges on February 29, 2004.
At present, Goyal, whose case is being tried by a Hoshiarpur
court, is serving as an administrative officer, department of information and public relations, a position he has been holding ever since he was transferred out of Pathankot.
On pre-evidence stage now, the case had made headlines for the gravity of the alleged offence, which is non-bailable under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Peacock, also the national bird, is listed as endangered in Schedule I of
the Act.
Since 2004, the case has taken several twists, with Goyal already having undergone a departmental inquiry, in which he had been chargesheeted. Earlier in February 2004, the case remained mired in controversy as two postmortems were conducted on the birds.
Allegedly recovered from the private jeep of Goyal by two honorary wildlife wardens serving in Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur then, the birds were, on March 1, sent for a postmortem test at the Hoshiarpur veterinary hospital which said they had died of suffocation. The hospital had added that detailed examination was not possible as the birds were
putrified.
Later, they were sent to the wildlife institute at Dehradun for a second opinion. The report stated that the birds had died of gunshot wounds.
