BENGALURU: With the help of CID, the BBMP forest cell has cracked an online racket in selling parakeets and rescued eight Alexandrine parakeet chicks on Monday. With initial probe revealing a big racket, police say it has interstate ramifications.
This online trading was going on from an Airtel server room near BDA complex in HSR Layout. The offender is Airtel engineer Raghul Raj, who is the son of P Natarajan, Deputy Range Forest officer of Aroor, Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu.
Investigations revealed that Raj was managing three Airtel server rooms at Kudlu Gate, Electronics City and HSR Layout in Bengaluru. It was also found that from Tuesday morning, he had been calling prospective buyers to these server rooms and had sold two birds at `4,500 per pair.
CID forest cell inspector Purushotham, who led the raid, told Express, “It is a big racket in trading of birds from Tamil Nadu to Bengaluru. One more person is involved. A case against Raj has been booked under Sections 9, 13 and 14 of Wildlife Protection Act. He has been arrested by HSR Layout police.”
Smuggled to Europe, US
The birds are sold in the international market as pets for $200-600. Alexandrine parakeets are mostly traded in India and smuggled to Europe and America.