When 13 ‘victims’ were brought forward and questioned by the magistrate in a Delhi court, they were not what one typically expects – they were a flock of parrots.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana asked 13 parrots “where were you being taken?”
During the 'questioning', some nibbled on pieces of apple inside their cage, others looked around the courtroom, according to a report by news website Indian Express.
The hearing took place in Delhi’s Patiala House court complex on Wednesday afternoon, October 16.
The birds were allegedly being smuggled to Tashkent by an Uzbekistan national, were produced in front of Khurana, along with the 24-year-old accused Anvarjon Rakhmat Jonov.
Looking at two cages with six and seven birds inside, the judge asked custom officials whether the birds were prohibited from being exported.
Special Public Prosecutor P C Aggarwal, appearing for the customs department, said that after the birds were seized “to ascertain the exact description of the live parrots, the Wildlife Inspector and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Northern Region, was called to verify the genuineness of the parrots”.
“After examining them, it was confirmed that the parrots are live parakeets (of the family Psittacidae), and export of live parakeets is restricted under the EXIM (export import) policy,” Aggarwal reportedly told the court.
The judge ordered the Wildlife Department to take care of the birds.
The accused will now be brought before the court on October 30.
While scanning baggage at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on Tuesday, October 15, security personnel had spotted the birds through scanners in shoeboxes kept inside Jonov’s bag.
The accused claimed they were soft toys, however, upon checking, airport officials found the live birds. Most of them were unconscious.
The court was told that one of the parrots flew away when the cage was opened, but it later returned on its own, according to the report by Indian Express.
A senior CISF official said Jonov was going to board a flight to Tashkent via Uzbekistan Airways.
“During questioning, he revealed that these were rose-ringed parakeets, whose demand is high in Tashkent,” said a senior officer in the customs department, adding that this is the first time someone has tried to smuggle live birds from this particular airport.
