Four guys have been detained after a video showed them gang-rapping a Bengal monitor lizard at the Sahydari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, India, was discovered on one of the accused’s phones.
The four males were caught on camera by the Maharashtra Forest Department loitering around the forest and trespassing into the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve, which the Indian government established in 2008 to protect Bengal tigers.
Officials discovered photographs of porcupines and deer on the men’s phones in addition to the video of the males sexually torturing the monitor lizard.
Bengal monitor lizards can grow to be about 16 pounds and five and a half feet long. Under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, they are currently classified as reserve species.
Only one of the accused was apprehended at first, while the others fled. The last three were eventually discovered in Hativ village in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district. The men travelled from Konkan to hunt in Kolhapur’s Chandoli hamlet, according to officials.
Sandeep Tukram, Pawar Mangesh, Janardhan Kamtekar, and Akshay Sunil have been identified as the four hunters.
The case was brought before the Indian Penal Court to determine the appropriate legal action and charges to be brought against the four guys. Anyone who voluntarily engages in intercourse with an animal “must be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either sort for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine,” according to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.