Supreme Court To Hear Wildlife SOS Chief’s Plea In Leopard Poaching Case

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea by Wildlife SOS co-founder and CEO Kartick Satyanarayan, who faces arrest in a Madhya Pradesh case involving the alleged poaching of leopards.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant agreed to expedite the listing of two petitions filed by Satyanarayan after senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, appearing for him mentioned the issue today.

"He had themselves assisted in the recovery of the leopard skins and is willing to cooperate, but we seek protection from arrest. Two petitions have been dismissed by the High Court under the Wildlife Protection Act. We are from an NGO and we had led to the recovery of leopard skins. Now we ourselves have been implicated by the State," Dave told court today.

When CJI Kant asked Dave if Satyanarayan was keeping the animals at his home, Dave said, "No. We led to the recovery of the skins in Agra. The recovery was in UttarPradesh and the matter was thereafter taken up in Madhya Pradesh. We are willing to cooperate and appear before the authorities, but we need protection."

The Madhya Pradesh high court recently withdrew interim protection from Satyanarayan, holding that he had failed to cooperate with investigators despite being protected from coercive action.

On September 7, the Gwalior bench said the protection granted to him on September 2 had been obtained “without full disclosure of vital records and circumstances”. It then directed Satyanarayan to appear before the STSF on September 21 and cooperate with the probe.

The state forest department had sought recall of the interim protection, telling the high court that Satyanarayan had not disclosed a third summons issued to him on August 24 or an arrest warrant issued by a competent court on August 31.

The case originates from the arrest of four alleged poachers in July this year on the Gwalior-Agra highway with 10 leopard skins. The STSF subsequently began investigating the alleged hunting, procurement and movement of the wildlife articles after the skins were traced to Madhya Pradesh.

The probe into the killing of 10 leopards in Sheopur and Morena districts led to the arrest of several people, including Bhagwan Singh, described by investigators as a wildlife trader associated with Wildlife SOS, and Wasim Akram, a director with the organisation. Investigators have alleged that the two named Satyanarayan during questioning.

Satyanarayan had approached the high court seeking quashing of summonses issued to him. The probe concerns the alleged hunting of the leopards and those who facilitated or abetted it, while a separate Uttar Pradesh case relates to possession and transportation of the skins.

Mentioning Date: September 15, 2026

Bench: CJI Surya Kant, Justice Bagchi and Justice Mohana