Instead, police catch two small fry but deny they were fooled
Instead, police catch two small fry but deny they were fooled
CITY police claimed a breakthrough by nabbing a gang of poachers on Wednesday, but enquiries reveal that's only part of the story.
According to police, Raju (24) and Kumar (30) were arrested near Balaji lodge in city market and six ivory tusks worth more than Rs 30 lakh recovered. The official claim is that the duo is part of a gang operating along the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.
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Caught: City Market police display the tusks siezed from two men |
However, sources revealed that the arrests happened by fluke, as the police had originally laid the trap for their leader Joseph, who gave them the slip. What's more, the accused were actually trapped at Kollegal last week. They were brought to the city and booked, which is standard practice since cases charged under forest laws are supposedly easier to get out of, said the sources.
A notorious poacher who operates in the forests of Kollegal, Chamrajnagar, Joseph specialises in killing elephants, and has reportedly killed nearly a hundred in the past two years. Ivory extracted from the elephants is smuggled into South East Asia, where it is in demand, with a kilogram of the stuff fetching up to Rs.2.5 lakh.
Police are only trying to cover up their failure after Joseph escaped their trap, sources said. "They confused the accused with Joseph, who is a wanted poacher with several cases against him," said a forest cell CID official.
Police, however, deny this. "They were trying to sell their goods in the market and we trapped them," they said.u00a0
u00a0"Joseph didn't give us the slip. We were acting on a tip-off from informants in Kollegal", said Loknath Kadri, inspector, city market police station.
"We came to know about Joseph from the accused, who are prime members of a poaching gang. We have now set a trap for Joseph and are confident of nabbing him," added Kadri.
