The Chandi Mandir Police and Wildlife Department has seized two more leopard skins from Ram Lal, the smuggler of wildlife trophies and animal skins arrested on Thursday.

Officials say that the leopard skins were recovered from Dhanes village in Sirmour district of Himachal Pradesh. A team of policemen led by DSP Prerna Puri and Sub-Inspector Gulab Singh, accompanied by Wildlife officials raided the hideout of the smuggler today and recovered the animal skins.

The police said the animal skins were found buried under a peepal tree near a hill in Dhanes village. Ram Lal himself led the police to the spot, saying that he had bought these skins from another person in Himachal and he was merely selling them to customers in Delhi.

The police had raided the hideout of the leopard hunter identified by Ram Lal at Ludhiana yesterday. However, the hunter had got wind of Ram Lal’s arrest and managed to escape. The police found his house locked.

Police said that Ram Lal had confessed in his interrogation that he was part of a chain involved in poaching of leopards and other wildlife animals in Himachal Pradesh. He would buy the animal trophies, keep them at his hide-outs in Bangala bastis at Pinjore, Baddi or Parwanoo, and after finding a suitable customer, would sell them off in Delhi.

Ram Lal was arrested by the police on June 6, when he was waiting for a vehicle near Morni T-point for Nahan. One leopard skin and a sum of Rs 70,000 were recovered from him.