Bengaluru: 400 leopard and 6 tiger nails seized; 4 arrested

Source

TIMES OF INDIA

Bengaluru: Chennammanakere Achukattu police on Saturday arrested four persons, including a woman, and recovered 400 leopard nails, six tiger nails, a blackbuck and jackal skin each, seven pangolin nails, two jungle cat paws and three sloth bear claws from them.

The accused are Prashant Kumar and Karthik from Mysuru and Pramila Reddy and Sai Kumar from Andhra Pradesh. The suspects were taken into custody near Kathriguppe Main Road in Banashankari III Stage on Saturday morning when they were waiting for potential buyers, said DCP (south) Harish Pandey.

According to Pandey, initial investigation revealed that most of the seized items were brought from Bandipur and Nagarahole. “But blackbucks are not present in these regions. They are found between forests of Tumakuru and Ballari. This indicates that the accused procured blackbuck skin either from these places or from areas bordering Andhra Pradesh. There are other suspects who are elusive,” he said.

Caught red-handed

“Two months ago, we had arrested a person and seized deer horns and ivory from him. During probe he had revealed that more such items would be reaching Bengaluru in October or November. We had kept an eye on the movement of the suspects and caught them red-handed on Saturday,” said an investigating official.

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