Czech scientist jumps bail, flees India

SILIGURI: Czech entomologist Emil Kucera, sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for illegally collecting rare insects from a national park in Darjeeling, has jumped bail and reached his home in Czechoslovakia, officials said today.

Czech Ambassador in India Hynek Kmonicek said over phone from New Delhi that he received an e-mail from Kucera stating that he had left India as “he had no other alternative but to reach his country”. Kmonicek said that it was absolutely Kucera’s personal responsibility and the Czech embassy was ready to extend all possible help to India on this issue.

Kucera’s lawyer TK Pandit was not available for comments. The lawyer’s assistant Prakash Pradhan said, “We don’t know that he has left India. Instead, we have received an e-mail from the Czech ambassador informing us that Kucera’s fellow entomologist Petr Svacha was sick and being treated in Delhi.”

Kucera was arrested along with Svacha on June 22 for collecting beetles, butterflies and moths from Singalila National Park without valid documents.

It took a few months for their bail petitions to be heard as lawyers ceased work in Darjeeling court during the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) movement.
Later, Kucera was awarded three years imprisonment and fined Rs 60,000. Svacha was let off with a fine of Rs 20,000.

Kucera, who was out on bail for making an appeal in a higher court, was staying in a Darjeeling hotel before his escape. His passport was in the custody of the Darjeeling chief judicial magistrate.