In the wake of previous such incidents in the city, the Forest Cell of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) believes Bengaluru is a large market for a network that thrives on smuggling protected birds.

Late on Monday, CID sleuths set up a meeting with Raghul Raj, an engineer with a telecom firm, who was selling Alexandrine parakeet chicks for Rs. 4,500 a pair.

The bird is classified as ‘near threatened’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, while it is a Scheduled IV protected species in India under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1982.

Through an online post, CID officials contacted him and arranged a buy of the birds from his office at HSR Layout. Mr. Raj was caught red-handed, while eight chicks were rescued from the server room of the office. CID officials said he is the son of a forester employed by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department at Dharmapuri.

Inquiries revealed that Mr. Raj had already sold 12 birds. “We are investigating and tracking down these customers. The birds have been brought from outside the State and we are probing the network that traps and brings these birds to the city,” said a CID official.

Mr. Raj is believed to have been selling parakeets for over a year. Last year, the CID Forest Cell rescued parakeets and other birds from smugglers in Sadashivnagar, and K.G. Halli here, apart from a large rescue of 29 parakeets from two students. “These networks provide people with a few parakeets which can be easily concealed in houses,” said an official.