In an Elephant Soup

The travails of Malayalam superstar Mohanlal can be traced to a pair of tusks

The travails of Malayalam superstar Mohanlal can be traced to a pair of tusks

Which is the best place to keep seized prop­erty? Kerala’s forest depart­ment has an answer—with the same person from whom the property was seized. In this case, Malayalam film actor Mohanlal, who has been deal­ing with a rather peculiar prob­lem after two pairs of elephant tusks were found during an Income Tax Department raid on his home last year.

A forest department enquiry revealed that a friend had gift­ed the tusks to Mohanlal. The certificate of ownership had, however, not been changed. A case was registered, but the tusks remained in Mohanlal’s possession.

High Court lawyer Sangeetha Lakshamana, though, sees no reason to be­lieve that evidence will be tam­pered with. “Technically, the property does not belong to Mohanlal, even if it is in his house. In fact, he has a great­er responsibility to keep the property as it is. Any tamper­ing of evidence will drag him into more trouble,” she says.

Meanwhile, the state’s Forest Minister, KB Ganesh Kumar, a former actor, sent a request letter to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to ‘give one more op­portunity to the public un­der a 2003 notification to de­clare illegal possessions of wild stock and trophies’. The cut-off time for declaration when this notification was passed had been 180 days. Kumar de­nied that he was revisiting this notification after eight years for Mohanlal’s benefit. In any case, the Centre dismissed the request.