Kathmandu, May 7 -- Nearly a year after he was arrested, the ringleader of a notorious wildlife smuggling network, Kunjok Lama, has been served seven years in jail and fined Rs100,000by a court in Nepal.

Rasuwa District Court Judge Rajendra Nepal handed the order this week after his bench of justice convicted Lama on 25 April.

Kunjok Lama, real name Kunjok Tsering Tamang, was lodged in Rasuwa District Jail following a district court order. He was accused of smuggling endangered wildlife parts, including tiger and leopard pelt and bone from India, through Nepal to China.

After the Criminal Code came into force in 2018, in cases that would serve more than three years, the court has to decide whether a person convicted of a criminal offen...