BHOPAL: From a religious gathering in Bhopal in 2022 to group/coalition poaching in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh from 2023 and from the use of high-end SUVs and MUVs to the modified expensive guns of foreign make -- the disclosures about a recently busted inter-state gang of antelope species poachers are getting bigger.
Ten months long investigations by Madhya Pradesh's specialised anti-wildlife crime wing has led to the busting of an inter-state antelopes poaching racket -- which is turning out to be much bigger than imagined.
Four men mostly hailing from rich and influential families of Mumbai, have been arrested by the state's tiger strike force (STSF) between December 2024 and October 2025.
The latest accused to be arrested is Sabah Antulay, a commerce graduate from the University of Mumbai, who was currently working in the customer service section of a prominent airline company of the Middle East in the Maharashtra capital.
Ongoing investigations, particularly based on Sabah's quizzing, has revealed the strong possibility of him being the gang's key link with rich and influential people of Mumbai and neighbourhood, to whom meat and skinbof antelopes poached in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh is believed to have been supplied.
The three other arrested men, Johar Hussain, Imtiyaz Khan and Salman, who also hail from Mumbai, were arrested from Kishanganj area of Indore district in December 2024. The STSF had then seized around 65 kg meat of poached blackbucks and chinkara antelope species.
The antelopes were poached by the gang members in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh with the help of local contacts spread across the central Indian state, including Bhopal.
"The gang members met with their key contacts in MP capital during a major religious gathering on the outskirts of the city in 2022. It is from there that there network started spreading its tentacles in the wildlife species rich state since 2023," a source forming part of the ongoing probe confided to the TNIE.
Since then the high-end modified foreign made airguns and rifles, mostly of foreign make, including a Swedish make gun (each of whose prices ran into lakhs of rupees) were used by gang in the bush-hunting in MP.
Not just high end guns, but expensive MUVs and SUVs were used by the gang members for coalition/group poaching of antelopes and subsequent transporting of the poached blackbucks, chinkara and sambars.
"They were trained in precision shooting by a Bhopal-based national level shooter, who is now on the run. Our target is now to trace and nab the gang members based in MP," the source connected with the ongoing investigations revealed.
As the investigations make headway skeletons are tumbling out of the cupboard.
Though initial probe suggested that the meat of poached antelopes from MP was consumed and supplied in Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai, inputs based on Sabah's recent questioning has raised the possibility of the meat having been supplied to other states and even being routed to the Middle East.
Digital evidences seized so far suggests that the gang members were running closed groups on secure social media platforms, first to share inputs on tracking of the locations of antelopes species, then poach them and route the meat to the rich and influential customers.
"One group or coalition often poached 4-5 antelopes in a day. While they went for bush hunting in the jungles of MP, seized evidence suggests that they also flew for game hunting in African countries. Their foreign links also need to be proved," the informed sources said.
