• 8 kg tusks recovered, two-wheelers seized
• Prime accused among three absconding

Mysore/Mysuru: The Mysuru Forest Mobile Squad personnel, in the early hours of Saturday, have arrested four inter-State ivory smugglers and have recovered five pieces of elephant tusks besides seizing a bike and a scooter used for the crime.

The arrested are Charles Sahiveer of Vaddaradoddi village, Hanur taluk of Chamarajanagar district, Ganesh of Indiranagar at Pennagaram taluk, Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, R. Selvakumar of Jageri village near Sathegala in Chamarajanagar and Antonyraya of Jageri village. All the four accused have been remanded to judicial custody.

Acting on a tip off that 7 persons were trying to sell elephant tusks on T. Narasipur-Tayur Road, the Forest Mobile Squad personnel, who conducted an operation on Friday evening, arrested four smugglers, while three of them including the prime accused managed to flee from the spot.

Those who fled, when the Forest personnel raided the spot have been identified as prime accused Robert Pinto Periyarugam on Sandanpalya, Hanur taluk in Chamarajanagar district, Leo Fernandes of Kollegal and John Bosco of Shiluvaipura village in Kollegal taluk.

Following the arrest, the Forest staff have recovered five pieces of elephant tusks weighing 8 kg and have seized one Honda Dio scooter, one Bajaj Pulsar bike and three mobile phones from them.

During interrogation, the Forest officials came to know that prime accused Robert Pinto was a habitual offender who was involved in forest crimes at Talamalai Wildlife Range of Sathyamanga Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.

The Forest officials also came to know that all the accused in this case were inter-State habitual offenders, who were involved in selling of wild animals’ pelts, antlers and tusks etc.

The Forest Mobile Squad officials said that an investigation team has been formed to trace the three accused, who are absconding and also to trace the base of the seized tusks.

Mysuru Forest Mobile Squad DCF Ramakrishnappa and ACF Nagaraju guided RFO Vivek, DRFOs V. Naveen Kumar, Pramod, D.M. Vinod Kumar, Nagaraju, Anil Kumar, T.C. Sneha and K.J. Meghan, Forest Guards Mahantesh, Kotresh Poojar, Chennabasavaiah, Virupaksha, Udaykumar, Kumar, Prakash and Diwakar and drivers Madhu and Puttaswamy in the operation.