Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police recovered a leopard skin and arrested three persons in connection with the incident in Jaydev Vihar area here, police said Monday.
The accused were identified as Rohit Mohapatra, 26, Manjit Sabat, 21, and Sambhu Bisoy, 23, they said.
Acting on intelligence inputs, a team of Special Crime Unit (SCU), led by DCP Anup Kanungo, carried out a raid at a slum near a premier hotel in the Jaydev Vihar area at around 5 pm Sunday and recovered a leopard skin.
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“Three persons have been taken into custody following the recovery,” the Twin City police said. Preliminary investigation revealed that Rohit and his associates have been involved in illegal wildlife trade for quite some time now. “The accused had planned to sell the contraband for Rs30,00,000.
We suspect the skin has been brought from outside Odisha and a probe is under progress to ascertain if some others are involved in the trade,” Police Commissioner S Dev Datta Singh told the media.
The trio was booked under relevant provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. They were forwarded to the court following their arrest.
