Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday slammed Sabu Jacob, the Managing Director of Kitex Garments, while considering his petition seeking the safety of wild tusker Arikomban.

'Is Arikomban Twenty20's chief coordinator?' the court asked in a reference to the petitioner's Ernakulam-based political party. The court also said that it doubted the original intent of the petitioner. It dismissed Sabu's suggestion that the tusker should be brought back to Kerala.

A plea was moved by Sabu Jacob on Tuesday in the Kerala High Court seeking directions to the Centre and the Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments to ensure that rice-eating tusker Arikomban is not harmed while being tranquilised.

The plea, which was listed for hearing before a bench of Justices Alexander Thomas and C Jayachandran, also sought that the tusker be translocated to some other "deep forest range". It also sought that the tusker be handed over to Kerala for being translocated to any of the forest divisions of the state.

The wild tusker recently strayed into Tamil Nadu from Kerala and allegedly attacked a man in Theni who later died. Known for its love of rice and ration shop raids in Kerala, Arikomban was last month translocated to the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the state, before it strayed into Cumbum town in Tamil Nadu's Theni district on May 27. Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu government formed a team of experienced forest officials under the field director of Srivilliputhur Megamalai Tiger Reserve (SMTR) to nab the wild tusker.

 

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