The police in eastern Assam’s Golaghat district seized a female elephant owned by a former MLA after it trampled a 14-year-old boy to death.
The police in the district’s Bokakhat town registered a case in connection with the incident under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code, and handed over the elephant named Dulumoni and her eight-month-old calf Lakhimi to the authorities of the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.
Bokakhat, about 240 km east of Guwahati, is the headquarters of Kaziranga.
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The local police said the trampling of Bitu Gaud, who belonged to the tea plantation workers’ community, triggered an outrage.
“We will take action against the mahout as he was with the elephant when the incident happened,” a local police official said, adding that Dulumoni had killed another person in 2020.
“The police handed over the elephants to us for their proper care and safe custody, since they cannot keep the elephants with themselves,” Kaziranga’s Field Director P. Sivakumar said Thursday.
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The owner of Dulumoni and her calf is Jiten Gogoi, who was elected from the Bokhakhat Assembly constituency twice (2001 and 2006) as an Independent. He was a member of the extremist United Liberation Front of Asom before he joined politics.
The former MLA was not available for comment.