Gorakhpur (UP), Nov 12 (PTI) Two men were arrested on Thursday for allegedly hunting a nilgai from Tiwaripur area in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

It is prohibited to hunt down nilgai, a protected species, coming under Schedule 3 of the Wildlife Protection Act.

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The arrests were made during routine checking when a car was stopped in Domingarh locality and the carcass of a nilgai (blue bull) was found in it, they said.

Besides it, police also recovered a 0.22 bore rifle, two cartridges of the same bore and also a fired cartridge shell, Tiwaripur police station SHO Manoj Kumar Rai said.

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“The two accused, Meraj Hashmi and  Shakqib Masood have been booked under Section 429 IPC (mischief by killing or maiming cattle, etc., of any value or any animal of the value of fifty rupees) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act, Arms Act and Wildlife Protection Act,” he said.

(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)