VHP moves court after lioness 'Sita' is housed with lion 'Akbar' at Bengal safari

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad claimed that the lions had been named by the West Bengal's forest department authorities and had insulted the Hindu religion. (Representational Image).

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) Bengal wing decided to move the Calcutta High Court's Circuit Bench and challenged the forest department's decision to allegedly house a lioness named "Sita" and a lion named "Akbar" in the same enclosure at Siliguri's "Bengal Safari" park, a report in LiveLaw said.

Reports said that the lion and the lioness had been brought in from a zoo in Tripura on February 13 and forest department authorities said that they were already named "Sita" and "Akbar" before arriving and they had no role in renaming them.

VHP activists Anup Kumar Mondol and Lakshman Kumar Agarwal filed a case against the naming of the lioness as "Sita". The plea was mentioned before a bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya on Friday and has been listed for hearing on Tuesday, February 20.

The VHP claimed that the lions had been named by the West Bengal's forest department authorities and had insulted the Hindu religion.

"It has hurt the religious sentiments of numerous people. We have, therefore, moved the Jalpaiguri circuit bench of Calcutta HC demanding rechristening of the lioness," Subhankar Dutta, an advocate representing VHP told The Times of India.

"Sita" is five-and-a-half years old while "Akbar" is seven years old and were born at the Tripura zoo, from where they were brought to Siliguri.