RPF jawan, two others held with rhino horn in Jorhat

The Times of India , Monday, April 18, 2016
Correspondent : TNN
Jorhat: Police on Saturday arrested three persons, including a Railway Protection Force constable, and seized a rhino horn from them in the Titabar area of Jorhat district.

The arrest and seizure came at a time chief minister TarunGogoi has ordered a probe into the killing of rhinos in Kaziranga National Park before and during the visit of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The arrested persons were identified as SurjyaThakuria, Aimur Rahman and Ranjit Hazarika. Surjya is an RPF jawan posted in Dibrugarh while the others are residents of Mariani in Jorhat district.

Police said the trio was caught with the horn in the Dholi area of Titabar. They were on their way to Jorhat town from Mariani in a van. The horn, weighing about a kilogram, was found inside a bag under the seat of the van during a search operation.

"Acting on a tip-off, we arrested the three persons near Dholi Bridge here. We seized the rhino horn, the van and three mobile handsets," said subdivisional police officer of TitabarGayatriSonowal who led the operation. She said the arrested persons were produced before the court of the subdivisional judicial magistrate, Titabar, on Saturday. The court remanded them to three days' police custody to enable further interrogation.

Police are trying to find out how they acquired the rhino horn and how many people are involved in the smuggling.

Saturday's arrest and seizure came three days after poachers killed an adult rhino and chopped off its horn when the royal couple were visiting Kaziranga. The poaching took place around 11.10pm on Wednesday inside the Burapahar forest range of the park, about 30 km from the jungle resort where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were staying.

On April 10, just before the royals' visit to Kaziranga, poachers had attacked and de-horned an adult female rhino in Panbari reserve forest under the northern forest range of the park. Forest staff found the rhino, still alive, with severe bullet injuries, and tried to save her, but it succumbed to the injuries.

It is not known whether the rhino horn that was seized on Saturday belonged to the two rhinos killed in Kaziranga. On Friday, Gogoi directed additional chief secretary TY Das to probe the two incidents and submit a report to him at the earliest. Gogoi asked Das to go into the circumstances leading to the killing of the two rhinos and fix responsibility.

Poachers target rhinos because of the demand for their horns in southeast Asian markets for their alleged medicinal properties.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/RPF-jawan-two-others-held-with-rhino-horn-in-Jorhat/articleshow/51862782.cms
 


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