Deer horns, skin worth Rs 47 lakh seized, 3 arrested

Mumbai: Acting on a tip-off, the Thane police confiscated deer horns and skin valued at around Rs 47 lakh from three people arrested in this connection Friday.

The seizure was made in the early hours of Friday but the process of inquiry and possession of illegal property took a day, said police officials investigating the case. The arrested accused hail from Amravati in the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra.

Talking to The Asian Age, D.S. Swami, deputy commissioner of police (zone 1), said, “On a tip-off, we got to know that some people were involved in illegal trade of skin, horns and nails of wildlife and were coming near the Global Park en-route to Mumbra town.”

“We formed the police team which kept a vigil and intercepted the car in which they were travelling. After searching the car, we got to know that the occupants had concealed different kinds of deer horns and the skin of a protected animal in the vehicle,” he said.

The seized items had been kept in sacks, plastic bags and hidden in the car’s boot, dumped so as to look like household stuff. Dozens of horns were seized valued at around Rs 47 lakh.

An offence under the Protection of Wildlife Act, 1972, has been registered against the trio identified by the police as Mohammad Tousif Israel Saudagar (27), Sh-aikh Tousif Sheikh Na-sir (22), and Rizvan Ah-med Rajik Ahmed (23).

Buying, selling, keeping any wildlife article or trophy is a violation of the Wildlife Protec-tion Act, 1972, which is a punishable offence.