The police on Sunday “detained” an elephant for killing a youth at the district headquarters town of Dhamtari in Chhattisgarh.
The tusker was “taken into police custody”, following a bizarre but tragic incident in which a local youth Shankar was trampled to death by the jumbo in the central Chhattisgarh town of Dhamtari on Saturday, the police said on Sunday.
According to the police, the drunken youth, a daily wage earner, had blocked the path of the elephant, when it was moving in the town carrying its mahout. He then teased the animal by repeatedly trying to scale its trunk, despite repeated warning by its handler.
Initially, the tusker shook the youth off twice mildly to get rid of him. The giant got irritated when the youth annoyed it again by hanging on its trunk and beating his head on it “in reverence”.
The animal then became violent and flung him on the ground. Later, much to the horror of the passers-by, the tusker crushed him under its feet. “Shankar bled profusely from mouth, ears and eyes and his intestines came out following the attack by the elephant. It was a gory sight. He died on the spot,” inspector-in-charge of city kotwal (police station), Dhamtari, D.S.Netam told this newspaper on Sunday.
He said the body has been sent for post-mortem.
“We have detained the elephant and its mahout. A case has been registered against the mahout under Section 289 (negligence in handling an animal leading to injury to a person) of Indian Penal Code (IPC)”, he added.