BHOPAL: Panna Tiger Reserve officers have booked five people, including a nephew of former BJP minister Kusum Mehdele and a policeman for poaching near the protected area.
While four of them were arrested with firearms, cartridges, wireless set and crude bombs, the minister's nephew, Mahendra Singh Mehdele, managed to escape with a 315 bore rifle on Friday.
Senior MLA and public health engineering minister Kusum Mehdele held the portfolio of women and child welfare in the BJP government between 2003 and 2008.
The accused were intercepted in a van during an anti-poaching drive, said a forest officer. He said two 12-bore rifles, 16 cartridges, three mobile phones, one wireless set, crude bombs, search lights, some bones of unidentified wild animals and chemicals used for making explosives were confiscated from them.
The arrested were identified as Saleem Gaffar, Mustakeem Khan, Hasan Khan and Chote Singh, all residents of Panna district. Hasan Khan is a constable. During interrogation, one of the accused said that they had poached two chinkaras in the past. All of them have been charged under different sections of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
