Indian tax officials raiding a former lawmaker's house in Madhya Pradesh state's Sagar city found three crocodiles in a pond.
The crocodiles were found on the property of Harvansh Singh Rathore, former member of the state assembly from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
The officials, over the course of a three-day raid at properties linked to the politician, reportedly recovered 14kg gold and nearly Rs30m (£283,668) in cash and multiple luxury vehicles, NDTV quoted tax authorities as saying.
Mr Rathore was elected to the state assembly in 2013.
The raid was reportedly carried out following complaints of irregularities in transactions related to the former state lawmaker’s business of 'bidi', which is a handrolled local cigarette made from tobacco wrapped in a leaf of Coromandel ebony tree.
Mr Rathore reportedly claimed to have obtained permission to keep the crocodiles, despite it being illegal to keep crocodiles as pets in India.
The forest department was informed and an investigation launched, local media reports said.
Earlier this week, a Canadian man was arrested at the Delhi airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage.
Customs officials stopped the 32-year-old man during a security check at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s international airport on Monday and found "a skull with sharp teeth, resembling the jaw of a baby crocodile" wrapped in a cloth.
The skull weighed about 777 grams, the customs department said in a statement on Thursday.
The man was arrested for violating India‘s Wildlife Protection Act and the skull was handed over to the forest department.
In September 2024, two people were caught at the Mumbai airport allegedly attempting to smuggle baby Caiman crocodiles.
The five baby reptiles were found concealed in toothpaste boxes in their hand luggage, according to the customs officials.
