Hunter Shafat Ali Khan threatens legal action against Maneka Gandhi for slanderous allegations

Hyderabad: Renowned Hyderabadi marksman Nawab Shafat Ali Khan has 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.

After Maneka Gandhi lashed out at Shafat Ali Khan, calling him “a criminal” and a suspect in a case of murder, the Hyderabadi hunter warned he would take her and others to court if they make any slanderous statements against him.

Shafat Ali Khan led a team of sharpshooters, hired by the Maharashtra state forest department, which shot dead Avani late on Friday night as she had turned into a maneater and killed 13 people in the area.

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 also directly targeted Maharashtra’s minister for forest S Mungatiwar for ordering the killing of the animal.

“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 her tweets alleging, “he is a criminal known for supplying guns to anti-nationals and for a suspected case of murder in Hyderabad”.

“I fail to understand why a state government should hire his services for illegal and inhuman acts”, she tweeted in a long thread.

Responding to the attack, Shafat Ali 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”.

Rejecting the allegations of Maneka Gandhi he said there was no FIR against him. Only an FIR was registered against him in 1991 and his pistol was seized by police, but the court acquitted him, he said.

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.

Defending his son Shafat Ali Khan said that veterinary doctor Kadu and Asghar Ali had accompanied him as a backup and Asghar had shot the animal in self defence. “There was no intention to kill. In fact we made a desperate attempt to save the tigress”, he said adding that the they had to fire in self defence as she had charged towards the team.

He warned that if those making baseless allegations against him do not back them up with proof, he would not hesitate to take them to the court, “however high and mighty they are”.

He said that efforts were being made to track down and save the two cubs of the tigress. They are semi adults weighing 60kg and we will rescue them in a month’s time.” Shafat Ali Khan said.