The Chamarajanagar police have arrested two suspected poachers and recovered the remains of a leopard they had allegedly shot dead and two country-made guns from them.
A team of police personnel from Kollegal rural police station, acting on a tip-off, waylaid two persons on a motorcycle near Chikkalluru on Saturday morning and found that the pillion rider was in possession of two country-made guns wrapped in a plastic cover.
The police immediately seized the unlicensed firearms and subjected the duo identified as Shantaraju and Arun, both residents of Doddainduvadi village, to interrogation, said a statement from the office of Superintendent of Chamarajanagar district police.
During questioning, the duo admitted to killing a leopard four days ago along with the third accused person named Nataraj in Kaggalipura forest area of Kaveripura. But, when they were removing the skin of the dead animal, they heard the sound of somebody approaching the area. Hence, the cut the limbs of the animal and fled the spot abandoning the rest of the leopard’s carcass.
The police arrested the duo and booked them under different provisions of Indian Arms Act and Wildlife Protection Act.
A team of police personnel, which was constituted to investigate the case, recovered the abandoned carcass of the leopard based on the information provided by the accused poachers.
Superintendent of Chamarajanagar district police Padmini Sahoo has complimented the team of police personnel for the arrest of the alleged poachers and the recovery of the firearms.
