High Court Upholds 5-Year Prison Sentence for Chinese National in Tiger Skin Smuggling Case

Kathmandu. The Patan High Court has upheld the District Court's decision to sentence a Chinese national involved in tiger skin smuggling to 5 years in prison. A division bench of High Court judges Rajukumar Khatiwada and Deepak Khanal upheld the District Court's verdict.

The Patan High Court upheld the District Court's decision sentencing Chinese national MA JINGBIN, who was working as a hotel manager, to 5 years in prison and a fine of one thousand rupees in compensation. The High Court acquitted three other Chinese nationals accused in the same case: ZHAO PENGCHENG, NIU YULIANG, and PENG HUI.

Police raided the 'Jianghu Kejan Hotel' located in Jyattha, Kathmandu Metropolitan City-17, on the night of Ashad 21, 2078 BS. Four Chinese nationals were arrested while gambling in room number 201 during the raid. A 10-foot long Royal Bengal tiger skin, from head to tail, was discovered during the search of room number 203 of the hotel.

Similarly, 900 Rudraksha seeds, 27 kg of Rudraksha beads, 20 pieces resembling musk pods, and NPR 889,155 in cash, along with a large quantity of mobile phones and ATM cards, were also recovered from the hotel.

According to the test report from the National Trust for Nature Conservation, the recovered skin belonged to a Royal Bengal tiger, and the tiger was found to match the one tagged 'CNP-FT54' that was captured in camera traps in the buffer zone (Bhandar) of Chitwan National Park between 2015 and 2017.