Tigress hunter threatens legal action against Maneka

Minister had in a series of tweets called killing of Avani a ‘brutal murder’

Renowned Hyderabadi marksman Nawab Shafat Ali Khan reacted strongly to the attack by Union Minister Maneka Gandhi against him over the killing of a man-eating tigress Avani in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra two days ago.

He said he would take Maneka Gandhi and others to court for ‘slanderous allegations’. Maneka Gandhi, minister for women and child welfare in the Modi government, in a series of strong tweets called the killing of the tigress a “brutal murder” and had called Khan “a criminal” and a suspect in a case of murder.

Shafat Ali Khan led a team of sharpshooters which shot dead Avani late on Friday night as she had turned into a maneater and killed 13 people in the area. The operation was ordered by Maharashtra’s minister for forest S Mungatiwar.

“Shafat Ali Khan has killed three tigers, at least ten leopards and a few elephants and 300 wild boars in Chandrapur, Maharasthra,” she said in tweets alleging, “he is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad”.

Khan said, “I was merely carrying out orders of the forest department, confirmed by the High Court and Supreme Court. My job is only of a hangman”.

Maneka Gandhi also targeted his son Asghar Ali who had shot the tigress. “This time his son has also appeared on the scene illegally to murder the tigress. His son was not authorised to kill. This was patently illegal. Despite the forest officials being committed to tranquillise, capture and quarantine the tigress, the trigger-happy shooter has killed her on his own under the orders of Mugantiwar,” she said.