Siliguri (West Bengal): On a tip-off, the West Bengal forest department officials arrested three youths for killing and feasting on leopard meat. The accused later tried to smuggle the skin and paws of the dead leopard.
It is learnt that recently a picture of a leopard went viral on social media. The Wild Life Crime Control Bureau brought the matter to the notice of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the state forest department. The officials of both the departments immediately started the investigation and after 15 days of probing, the offenders were finally arrested.
Meanwhile, the SSB sleuths were informed by their sources of an attempt to smuggle the skin and paws of the dead leopard to neighbouring Nepal. The joint team of the Forest Division (Fansideoa Range), Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the SSB started a fresh probe into the incident.
While probing in the Foujijyote area of Fansideoa Block, the joint probe team arrested two youths Mukesh Kerketta and Pitalush Kerketta. The leopard skin was recovered from them. However, the paws of the leopard were missing, which created doubts in the minds of the probe officials.
During the interrogation, the arrested duo named one Tapas Khura, a resident of the Ranhira Tea Garden area, as the prime accused. Later the probe team sleuths arrested Khura from the Ghoshpukur area.
The local ranger, Sonom Bhutia, said that they started the probe immediately after the picture of the leopard went viral on social media. “But for the first time, I heard of someone having a feast with leopard meat. We are probing on how the leopard was killed,” he said.
However, he expressed concern over the development. He said that the villagers did not inform the forest department about the killing of the leopard. “The villagers should be more conscious about such issues,” he said.
The accused were produced before the Siliguri court on Saturday.
