MP High Court Grants Bail Over Alleged Sambar Deer Meat, Finds No Proven Link Between Accused and Recovered Meat

 

The Madhya Pradesh High Court granted bail to a man accused of cooking and consuming the sambar deer meat at a PWD guesthouse in Nagod, holding that the forest officials had not established a connection between the applicant and the meat recovered as the forensic report was still pending. The court further noted that no body parts of the sambar deer had been found that could prima facie confirm the meat cooked at the guesthouse was that of a wild animal.

The facts, as discerned from the case record, indicate that forest officials claimed to have received secret information that certain persons were holding a party involving sambar deer meat at the PWD Guest House in Nagod. Acting on that tip, officials intervened and recovered meat, but until the time of the bail hearing, they had been unable to connect the applicant to the meat, since the forensic science laboratory (FSL) report regarding the recovered material was still awaited. The court observed that the forest officials had not disclosed from where or by whom the deer was allegedly hunted. In statements, officials asserted that the persons apprehended were participating in a meat party, but they did not explicitly state that the meat in that party was from the wild sambar deer. The court found that even the co-accused persons' statements did not clarify the precise forest compartment or protected area from which the alleged deer had been hunted.

The applicant denied the allegations of cooking and eating wild animal meat, contending that his presence at the guesthouse was related to picking up a tenant, not participating in any such party. The State opposed the bail application, pointing to the applicant’s prior criminal record—including a vehicular accident case and an altercation—and argued that, along with others, he was consuming meat of a species protected under Schedule I of the relevant wildlife legislation. Nonetheless, observing the lack of direct linkage between the applicant and the recovered meat, and the absence of body parts corroborating that the meat was from a sambar deer, the court allowed bail. The court explicitly refrained from expressing any views on the merits of the case. The case is styled Sandeep Singh Parihar v State of Madhya Pradesh (MCRC-40989-2025).

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