The Wildlife Crime Cell of the Crime Branch on Wednesday made a vital breakthrough in its investigation into the smuggling of tusks.
Crime Branch police got the lead during interrogation of Santosh Nayak and Manoranjan Pradhan, the two key members of a poaching racket. They were among the seven members of the poachers’ gang arrested by the Boudh police on June 2.
Police took both of them on a five-day remand for further interrogation.
Special DG, Crime Branch, BK Sharma said acting on the information extracted from these two accused, a Crime Branch team raided their house and seized a diary.
“From the diary, we have got information about the people involved in wildlife smuggling and their network, which will help us immensely in our investigation,” he said.
He also said the Crime Branch has decided to get two other arrested members of the racket on remand for interrogation.
Sharma had earlier said the Crime Branch found during its preliminary investigation that after killing the tuskers, the poachers take the tusks to West Bengal, where they sell each tusk for Rs3 lakh to Rs4 lakh.
“The racket also gets orders for tusks from big traders and accordingly arranges people and fixes the date and timing for elephant poaching,” he said.
He said the poachers are taking advantage of improper patrolling by forest staff. Besides, as poaching of elephants is done in the inaccessible forest areas, it becomes difficult to collect evidence.