Accused sold horn to trader in Karbi Anglong
Guwahati: Involvement of a section of forest staff in poaching of rhinos in the famed Kaziranga National Park (KNP), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has come to the fore anew with the arrest of the Beat officer in Kuthori Beat Office of the national park.
The Special Task Force (STF) of Assam police have arrested Kuthori Beat Officer Prosenjit Keeling and four other accomplices — ,Lakhan Sahu, Samad Ali, Biren Mondal and Bogaram Keeling –for their involvement in killing of a rhino in Bagori Range of the National Park last year.
A source in the national park informed that the accused forest officer allegedly took lead in selling the horn of the poached rhino to wildlife trade racket at Bokajan in Karbi Anglong hill district.
The STF and Assam police also recovered two handmade guns from Khar Ingtipi village under Rong Bongway police outpost in Karbi Anglong district.
All the five accused who have been arrested by the STF, hail from Khar Ingtipi village.
They allegedly sold off the rhino horn at Rs 40 lakh and divided the money among themselves.
The arrested persons were handed over to the forest department on Tuesday for further interrogation.
Earlier, Assam police had arrested a few more forest field staff in connection with the unabated killing of rhinos in Kaziranga National Park that is construed the last protected home of the endangered one-horned Indian rhinoceros on this planet.