BARIPADA: A team of Jharkhand police on Wednesday seized animal bones and cash worth `14 lakh during a search at the house of a wildlife smuggler in Mayurbhanj’s Padampur village located within Jashipur police limits.
The team which raided the house of Md Mustaz, who is allegedly a poacher as well as a trader of hides and ivories, was led by the Superintendent of Police and Additional SP of Chaibasa district in Jharkhand.
During the raid, the police team found bones suspected to be of wild animals in a carton and `14 lakh. The raid was conducted in presence of police and forest officials of Mayurbhanj district at around 3 am. However, Mustaz managed to flee before police reached his house. A platoon of armed police was also deployed during the raid, Jashipur IIC Sarat Kumar Mallik said.
Later, Chaibasa police interrogated the family members of Mustaz and handed over the carton of bones to Jashipur forest officials.Mustaz apparently runs a gang of six that poaches wild elephants at the tri-junction of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.A couple of months ago, an elephant was found beheaded in Majhigaon village under Chaibasa reserve forest area and it was being investigated by Jharkhand police. Five of the gang members were arrested who later named Mustaz.
They also accompanied the police to identify his house in Padampur. Police suspect that Mustaz had been paid `14 lakh for poaching of the Majhigaon elephant for ivory.Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) Batakrushna Padhi, who rushed to Jashipur Range Office, said the police team has handed over the bones to range officer Himanshu Sathua. The bones will be sent for testing to ascertain who they belong to, he added.