BENGALURU: Four men, including two software engineers and a wildlife photographer, were arrested while they were trying to sell mounted trophies in Shankarpuram on Uttaradimutt Road in Shankarpuram on Sunday. The mounted trophies of three tigers and a black panther worth `2 crore were seized from them.
Those arrested have been identified as wildlife photographer Ashwin Ramaswamy, software engineers at a city-based private firm Jagadish and KV Arun Kumar and a security guard Rajashekar.
City Crime Branch(CCB)officials said the accused were in a car and a special team nabbed them following a tip-off. The accused had hidden the trophies in the boot space.
One more suspect, Krishna, is still at large. Krishna is said to be a stakeholder in a reputed
agarbathi firm. All the four arrested accused were later produced before the court.
A senior police officer told Express: “During interrogation,the accused confessed that some of the animals were hunted by the prime accused Ashwin and Jagadish in Bandipur forest area.
“During the weekend they would go on a wild safari and hunt the animals. Later they would sell mounted trophies to businessmen in Mysuru and Bengaluru,” he said.
“Eight more persons, who are involved in the crime are absconding since the arrest of the prime accused. Investigation is on to ascertain whether these people sold mounted trophies to any businessman in the past,” the officer added.
The officer further said: “We have collected call records of the accused and the businessman who was in touch with them. They were demanding more than `30 lakh for each mounted trophy. One of the swamijis also wanted to buy it in Shankarapuram. Finding the exact role of each accused in the crime will take some time.”
The accused wanted to make easy money by selling these mounted trophies. Interrogation is on to find out what weapons were used to kill the animals.