Jhajjar SSP Hanif Kureshi told reporters that multiple police raids at different locations in New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were continuing in an effort to track down Pataudi and his friends. The Haryana police had constituted three separate teams for this purpose on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, two voluntary organisations, the Wildlife Trust of India and People for Animals, on Sunday added a new twist to the case by announcing that they would oppose any bid by Pataudi and his friends to seek anticipatory bail. The two organisations have appointed separate counsels to represent them in the environment court at Faridabad.

Earlier, on a visit to Hisar on Saturday, top animal rights activist and MP Maneka Gandhi strongly criticised the Haryana police for what she described as its "deliberate inaction to help Pataudi try and secure anticipatory bail."

Obviously angry, Ms Gandhi also demanded that the former Nawab of Pataudi’s wife, actress Sharmila Tagore, immediately resign her position as chairperson of the film censor board. Reports from Hisar also quoted the MP as exhorting filmgoers to boycott movies starring the couple’s actor son, Saif Ali Khan.

And while Tiger Pataudi and his friends remain elusive, the one person arrested in the case, Madan Singh, a local guide for the former cricketer’s hunting party, is due to be produced in court after the period of his judicial remand expires on Monday.

Madan Singh, in his disclosure statement to the Jhajjar police, had named Pataudi as the person who had shot and killed the black buck on the night of June 3.