In a first judgement of its kind, Justice D H Waghela of the Gujarat High Court on Tuesday directed animal rights activist Bharat Kothari to return 1,325 sheep and goats to a Rajasthan-based trader within a month. He also asked Kothari to pay Rs 75,000 as maintenance cost of the animals to a Patan-based pound.

Kothari had intercepted eight cattle laden truck on the outskirts of Palanpur on June 17 on the pretext that the animals were being transported in a cruel manner.

The judgement assumes significance as for the first time a an animal rights activist has been ordered to pay for the cost of maintenance of the animals in the pound.

Earlier, activists got away with catching the animals and shifting them to some pounds, registered or unregistered, with the pound operator bearing the expenses on the animals.

Justice Waghela asked Kothari to undertake a medical check-up of all the goats and sheep and ensure that they are in healthy state, before they are handed back to the owner.

He also ordered Banaskantha district police authorities to investigate if the Deesa police, where the offence was registered against the petitioners (Dosukhan Samadkhan Sindhi and five others) on charges of cruelty to animals, were involved in cognisable offence. He sought appropriate action against them if they were found guilty.

According to the details of the case, as many as eight truckloads of goat and sheep were being transported from Sanchor in Rajasthan to Ranip in Ahmedabad when Kothari intercepted them and took the trucks to the Deesa police station.

Around 7.30 pm the same day, the traders from Rajasthan sent a fax message to the Banaskantha SP that animal rights activists had hijacked their cattle laden trucks. They said the animals were being taken for sale in the cattle market.

After two hours of the receipt of the message, the police registered a case under Section 279 of IPC pertaining to rash driving, and Section 11(D) of Cruelty against Animals Act, against the truck drivers and their associates. No case was registered against the rights activist.

The police also handed over the animals to the custody of the activist as they had no arrangement to keep them.

Advocate Mukul Sinha pleaded before the court that evidence with the drivers proved that the animals were being transported in a legal and proper manner and that the activists had no right to hijack the trucks.

He said the police was also not authorised to keep the animals in the custody of activists.

Later, the police registered a case of robbery against an associate of Kothari and arrested him on the directions of the court.