Palghar: Nine people have been arrested after a man was innocently shot dead while hunting in Maharashtra in Palghar district. An official confirmed Thursday that the accused had been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other related offences.
The police said villagers of a group entered the Borsheti forest in Manor on January 28 to hunt wild boars. Some of the members of the expedition got separated from the group. One of the hunters turned out to be mistaken for movement in the dry leaves as the movement of a wild animal opened fire as they tried to reunite. But the gunshot killed one of the two villagers instantly.
Ramesh Vartha, 60, a resident of Borsheti, was the deceased. Hadal, 28, was waiting with a firearm when he fired at Vartha, though mistakenly, thinking him to be a wild boar.
The group panicked after the shooting was accidental and decided to hide Vartha’s body in bushes instead of the police. On January 29, his wife filed a missing person’s complaint when he did not return home.
During the investigation, police found that the day after Vartha joined the hunting group, they went to walk to a cooking area where the sound of the footsteps on the dry leaves made Hadal open fire on the fatal shot.
During the probe, nine people suspected to have taken part in the illegal hunting expedition were arrested. The case points out the risks of unsupervised hunting in forested areas and careless use of firearms. Further investigations continue, so the accused still remains in custody.
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