Bengaluru: Chennammanakere Achukattu Police in Bengaluru have arrested four individuals, together with a lady, and recovered 400 leopard nails, six tiger nails, a blackbuck and jackal skin, 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 had been taken into custody close to Kathriguppe Main Road in Banashankari III Stage on Saturday morning after they had been ready for potential patrons, mentioned DCP (South) Harish Pandey.

According to Pandey, preliminary investigation revealed that a lot of the seized objects had been introduced 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 mentioned.

Harish Pandey even said that the accused have sourced wild life articles from many region. There is a bigger network suspected and investigation is on to identify others involved and also about their poaching and smuggling network, he added.

The seized items have been verified as genuine by the Forest Department. Officials of the Forest and Police Departments are now tracking records on wild animal deaths in Karnataka and neighbouring States. The accused are suspected to have illegal network of hunting wild animals and taking out the parts to sell it in the black market.

Caught red-handed

Two months ago, the Police had arrested a person and seized deer horns and ivory from him and during probe, he had revealed that more such items would be reaching Bengaluru in October or November. 

“We were told that the items were being sold to jewellery shops and they have a set of regular customers who demand that animal parts be fixed in gold lockets. We had kept an eye on the movement of the suspects and caught them red-handed on Saturday,” said an                                              investigating official.

While two of them are said to be from Hunsur near Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, the other two said they are from Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, a Police official said. He added that though the poachers claim to be first-time offenders, their details are being matched with Police and Forest Department records.