Stephan Kayyar

Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (EP)

Kasargod, Oct 14: Kasargod forest department officials seized deer horns and turtles worth crores of rupees in the international market, arrested four men and seized two cars allegedly used for the trade.

The arrested have been identified as Mohammed Abdulla Moidin(46), resident of Kumble Mogral, V Imam Ali (49) resident of Mogral Puttur, B M Kasim (40), Mogral Kopra Bajal and Karim (40), resident of Mayippady.

These men were arrested when they were travelling in two Alto cars at Kumble Peral Kannur on Friday, October 13. Three deer horns and eleven different varieties of turtles were found in the cars. The officials said that those were being transported to a secure place to hand them over to a group based in Mumbai. Forest department officials had information about the trade a few days ago and they had kept an eye on the movements of suspects. Another person in a bike behind the cars going as the guard managed to flee.

Deer horns and turtles are being used for black magic in north India and other places. There is a heavy demand for them in America and other countries. Therefore, the suspects were on their way to hand them over to the Mumbai group. The officials said that those will fetch several crores in the international market. Four white turtles are part of schedule one and seven black turtles are included in schedule four. The arrested suspects will be questioned and produced in the court.

The officials suspect that a network is active in the trade and investigations are in progress. They said that investigations have revealed that a large amount of deer horns and turtles were sold by the suspects in the past.

The operation was held under the leadership of DFO M Rajeevan and zonal forest officer N Anilkumar. P R Sajeev, Chandran Nayar, V V Rajagopalan, M K Narayanan, Hari, Shoukat, Joshy Joseph, Dhanesh, Ramesh, Rahul and others assisted in the operation.