India News | Maha: Forest Dept Informer Among Five Held for Poaching Leopard

Chandrapur, Feb 16 (PTI) The forest department at Bramhapuri in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district has arrested five persons in connection with the poaching of a leopard, a senior official said.

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The five accused, including an informer of the forest department, were presented in a local court on Monday, which sent them to magisterial custody remand (MCR) till February 25, he said.

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Recently, in a joint operation of Bhandara and Nagpur forest departments, a man was arrested from Bramhapuri tehsil in connection with the poaching of a leopard. Whiskers, 13 nails and 12 canines were recovered from him. The case was later handed over to Bramhapuri forest department.

During the course of investigation, the accused - Ranganath Shankar Matere - confessed that the informer, Nandkishore Pimple alias Jayshreeram Maharaj, had allegedly encouraged the accused to poach the leopard for monetary consideration, he added.

During the interrogation of Matere, the names of their Kamalkant Gangadhar Kuthe (32), Vijay Devidas Watankar (43), Shivraj Fating (52) came to light, the officer said.

He said that the forest department informer confessed that he took money from the four accused on the pretext of doubling their amount through black magic for which he sought the organs of a leopard.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)