In a grubby courtroom in Manmad, a major train junction around 90 km from Nashik, a pitched battle is being fought to protect the rights of an elephant.

Lakshmi has been in custody since April 14 after the Manmad police registered a complaint against the owner, alleging that he had “whipped and poked” the elephant, troubling and abusing it during a BSP rally to mark Ambedkar Jayanti.

What began as a simple procession has now become a legal tussle between various government agencies. Manmad woke up to Lakshmi’s existence on April 14, when the local BSP members organised a rally through the town and hired the elephant for Rs 31,000. Lakshmi, carrying a huge photograph of B R Ambedkar, was the main attraction.

As the rally wound up, the Manmad police swung into action, booked owner and mahout Chottelal Brahmalal Pandey for violating sections of the state wildlife protection act, took Lakshmi into their custody and produced Pandey before magistrate D K Anbhule the next day.

“We registered the case under the Wildlife Act because we saw the animal being tortured,” says Inspector Srinivas Patil of the Manmad police station. “Now we will wait for the court verdict.”

Ignoring pleas from Pandey that he had brought up Lakshmi since she was a baby and had a valid licence to commercially use her in Thane, Nashik and Aurangabad region, the court fined him Rs 10 for allegedly torturing the animal.

And ever since, the court has been trying to find a custodian for the elephant. First, the Yeola-Manmad forest department was directed to take charge of the elephant. On Friday, they replied in court saying that they did not have the facility to take care of an elephant.

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