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Crime Branch police got the breakthrough during interrogation of Santosh Nayak and Manoranjan Pradhan, the two key members of a poaching racket, today. They were among the seven members of poachers’ gang arrested by the Boudh police on June 2 this year.
Police took both of them on a five-day remand for further interrogation.
Talking to OTV today, Special DG, Crime Branch, BK Sharma said acting on the information extracted from these two accused, a Crime Branch team raided their house and seized a diary.
“From the diary, we have got information about the people involved in wildlife smuggling and their network, which will help us immensely in our investigation,” he added.
He further said Crime Branch police has decided to get two other arrested members of the racket on remand for interrogation.
Notably, in a press briefing two days ago, Sharma had said that the Crime Branch has found during its preliminary investigation that after killing the tuskers, the poachers take the tusks to neighbouring West Bengal where they sell each tusk for Rs 3-4 lakh.
“The racket also gets orders for tusks from big traders and accordingly arranges people and fixes the date and timing for elephant poaching,” he said.
He further said the poachers are taking advantage of improper patrolling by forest staff. Besides, as poaching of elephants is done in the inaccessible forest areas, it become difficult to collect evidence.
“Despite this, the Wildlife Crime Cell of the Crime Branch has kept a strict vigil on such incidents,” Sharma informed.