28 April,2009 09:13 AM IST | | Satish Badiger
Charmer: Syed Haneef coaxes the cobra out of the pot and shows it to the mediapersons who had gathered outside Basava Bhavan pics/satish badiger
But not before five agonising hours
A 4.5-foot cobra in Chief Justice P Dinakaran's gardenu00a0 at his Palace Road home and had the household in a tizzy for almost five hours. And then the snake-catcher trapped the reptile.
Dinakaran's servant spotted the snake at around 8 pm on Sunday night and the family immediately called the High Grounds police station which, in turn, called snake-catcher Syed Haneef.
By the time Syed arrived from his home in Tilaknagar at 9.30 pm, the snake was nowhere to be seen. After a futile search, he returned home only to be called again at 11 pm. The snake had been sighted.u00a0 Syed managed to catch the reptile only at 1 am, and put it in a plasticu00a0 pot. When a concerned chief justice asked Syed how he was going to get rid of the snake, he requested for a vehicle to take him to Bannerghatta.
He was given a police vehicle and freed the snake by 2.30 pm yesterday afternoon. But not before showing off his catch outside Basava Bhavan. Inside, the governor and other dignitaries were attending a function, but Syed had his own audience of photographers.u00a0
Syed also got a letter of appreciation and made Rs 100 in the process, courtesy the chief justice.
