Mulugu: 2 held with tiger skin

Mulugu: The Mulugu police on Thursday arrested two persons near Mullakatta bridge near Eturnagaram town for possessing tiger skin.

The accused were identified as Thirumalesh from Wazeedu in Mulugu district and Satyam from Chandur village in Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh. Mulugu District SP Sangramsingh G Patil said that the prime accused, Thirumalesh, who used to visit his in-laws in Chandur village under Tarlaguda mandal in Chhattisgarh, made friends locally.

About a month ago, he received a call from a person, seeking his help to find a prospective buyer for a tiger skin. Thirumalesh found a buyer who offered Rs 30 lakh for the skin.

Thirumalesh stored it in the house of another accused, Satyam, in Chandur village and both took the skin over to Telangana to sell it. On a tip-off, the forest officials including FDO Eturunagaram J Gopal Rao nabbed them, inspected the skin and certified it as authentic tiger skin. Efforts are on to arrest the other accused linked with the case.

As the offence attracts several penal provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the case is being handed over to the forest department for further investigation, the SP said. Patil lauded the efforts of Eturnagaram CI K Kiran Kumar, SI Srikanth Reddy, SI Shyam Sundar, constables M Srinivas, K Kranthi, K Venu Kumar, Md Rafi and Md Taj in arresting the accused.