· One of the accused sent to judicial custody till June 13

· Wildlife conservationists express shock

NEW DELHI: A joint team of the Delhi and Haryana police on Tuesday raided the Vasant Vihar residence of the former cricket captain, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, in south Delhi. It seized a blue Maruti Gypsy allegedly used in hunting down a blackbuck and two rabbits in Jhajjar district in Haryana last weekend.

The team led by an investigating officer of the Haryana police, Ajmer Singh, reached Mr. Pataudi's house around 4 p.m. and left within half hour.

Earlier, one of the accused, Madan Singh, was sent to judicial custody till June 13 by a court in Haryana, while notices for appearance were issued to the other accused in a poaching case. Mr. Pataudi has been given time till June 10 to surrender after he failed to comply with the court order to appear by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

Police summons

The Jhajjar district police issued notice summoning Mr. Pataudi and six others to appear before the Station House Officer by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, but there was no response. The District Superintendent of Police, Hanief Qureshi, said another opportunity was being given to them to appear before the SHO on Wednesday.

Sources said the police were not dilly-dallying in the matter. Police parties would be sent to nab the accused in case they failed to respond to the summons, they asserted.

Wildlife conservationists expressed shock and concern at the inability of the Haryana Forest Department to curb poaching and arrest Mr. Pataudi, despite its having "caught him red-handed with the carcass of an animal protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act."

Equating the killing of the blackbuck with the slaying of a tiger, the Executive Director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, Belinda Wright, said: "People of Mr. Pataudi's status and education should behave better and in a more responsible manner. The incident has brought into focus the vulnerability of the protected wildlife population. "

"Heinous crime"

The co-founder of Wildlife SOS, Kartick Satyanarayan, said this was "the most heinous" crime. "Mr. Pataudi is clearly in the soup with the media taking interest in the matter and we hope more arrests are made soon. Mr. Pataudi should have been a role model and could very well have become a spokesperson for conservation."

The Haryana chapter of People for Animals (PFA) has said the CBI should investigate the case. "We have lost our confidence in the Haryana police which, instead of arresting the main accused, has filed a case against me for having dug up and brought the animal to Delhi," said the chairman of the Haryana chapter, Naresh Kumar Kadiyan.