BHUBANESWAR: The Special Task Force (STF) of Crime Branch on Monday arrested two persons, including a teacher of a private college, and seized two leopard and two deer hides from them.
Acting on a tip-off, the agency's officers conducted a raid at Giripuja forest in Daspalla on Sunday evening when they were allegedly planning to sell the skins to some customers.
"A case has been registered under Sections 379, 411, 120B of IPC and Section 51 of Wild Life (Protection) Act. The accused Pratap Kumar Nayak of Sakini Village and Kishore Chandra Dehury of Dedhasara village will be produced before a court in Daspalla on Monday," STF DIG Jai Narayan Pankaj told TNIE.
Police sources said Dehury is working with a college in Nayagarh district as a teacher. One of the leopards' skin has holes and the other leopard hide indicates a broken leg.
"It needs to be verified whether one leopard was shot and another was trapped in the forests. The seized skins will be sent to Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun for examination," said Pankaj.
Leopard skins are used for home decoration or in the creation of luxury carpets, while deer hides are used to make leather items.
Meanwhile, STF said they will request the court to allow them to take the accused on remand for further interrogation to ascertain about the place where the leopards and deer were killed and if the smugglers have contacts outside the State.