DEHRADUN: The four poachers arrested by the STF along with the tiger skin, skull and bones claimed that they had found the tiger dead near Cadarganj village near Kotdwar on the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand border. However, the cops suspect that they are professionals who had killed the tiger about six months back and hid the skin and bones in the jungle area. Giving strength the police theory are the injury marks on the tiger skin and the precision with which the skin of the tiger was removed.
The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttarakhand police on Sunday evening had caught four poachers - Meer Hamza, Mohammad Alam, Mohammad Daud and Santosh Duggal and seized a tiger skin, tiger skull and bones weighing 25-kg.
Hamza told the STF personnel that his relatives live in Kadarganj area on Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand border. He claimed that when he was going to the place of his relatives about six months back, he had seen the tiger lying dead in the jungle area and with the help of his three friends he decided to sell the skin and bones at a high rate.
However, the cops have a slightly different view as they suspect that the four were professionals and there was a strong possibility that the quartet may have killed the big cat.
Without giving many details, SSP STF P Renuka Devi told TOI, "There are injury marks on the skin of the tiger, which is an indication that it may have been killed." The four claimed that after removing the skin, they kept it in polythene bags and hid it in a pit in Lalwala area under Saneh police outpost of Pauri district. On the information provided by the four, the STF team went to the spot to collect further evidences.
"We are working on the case and more facts are likely to come out soon," she added.
On March 14, this year, the STF team had made the biggest recovery by seizing five tiger skins. In the biggest tiger skin haul in the state, the STF team also seized tiger skulls, jaws, bones and nails weighing over 125-kg, besides arresting an animal poacher. The total recovery is said to be in the range of Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Earlier on January 27, the Pauri district police had busted a major animal poaching gang with arrest of four poachers and recovery of seven leopard skins from their possession.
