Gwalior, March 11 – The Madhya Pradesh State Tiger Strike Force (MP-STSF), in coordination with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), arrested the wanted wildlife smuggler, Mishrilal Mahor, from the Shivpuri district of the Gwalior division, on Wednesday.
Following information about Mahor's location, a team from the State Tiger Force raided his house in Gohad village, Bhind district, and arrested him, a senior forest official told IANS.
Mahor is alleged to have been involved in large-scale smuggling of Red Crown Roof Turtles, and had been on the run for the past nine years.
The State Tiger Force had previously busted a gang involved in smuggling Red Crown Roof Turtles, a rare species found in the Chambal River, to foreign countries, and had registered a forest crime case on May 5, 2017.
A total of 16 accused were arrested in this case from four states, including 11 foreign nationals. The case was later transferred to the CBI, which has also arrested three other accused.
This development came three days after the State Tiger Strike Force, in a coordinated operation with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, arrested Tarak Nath Ghosh, the kingpin of a reptile smuggling racket, from Kanpur on Monday.
The accused, wanted in three cases of transnational illegal trade in turtles and gharials registered in Madhya Pradesh, had been on the run for eight years. Arrest warrants had been issued against him by three different courts.
According to information, Ghosh had spread his syndicate across several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and West Bengal. He is also suspected to have a network outside India, including Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, and Singapore.
On Wednesday, both Ghosh and Mahor were produced before the Shivpuri district court and subsequently remanded to forest custody for further investigation.
