The Kerala High Court, on Monday, September 18, stayed the ongoing trial in the illegal ivory possession case against actor Mohanlal. The ongoing trial going on in Perumbavoor Magistrate Court in Ernakulam has been stayed for six months. The magistrate court had earlier asked the actor to appear for the trial in November last year.
The decade-old case was registered after four elephant tusks were seized from the actor's house in a raid conducted by the Income Tax authorities in June 2012. Mohanlal, however, has been claiming that the ivory tusks were obtained legally and in 2015, at the direction of the Union government, the Kerala government had issued a certificate of ownership to him. Following this, the State government had issued a no objection certificate for withdrawing the case against him in 2020.
However, in June 2022, the Magistrate court dismissed the State's application to withdraw the case. The court observed that the withdrawal petition was filed in a hasty manner by the state government. The court also noted that there was no gazette notification in this case and hence the alleged certificate of ownership of the tusks has no legal sanctity.
Challenging this order, Mohanlal approached the High Court. In February this year, the HC dismissed the actor's plea but it partially allowed the state's plea for withdrawing from the case, and asked the Magistrate court for fresh consideration of the state’s plea.