The Crime Branch’s Special Task Force (STF) on Wednesday busted a leopard skin smuggling racket by arresting three persons in this connection from Bargarh district.The STF team has also seized a leopard skin along with nails and teethes from them.
Though the accused are natives of Bargarh district, they operate their racket from Bhubaneswar. Further investigation are on unearth more information to extract more information about the racket, the STF officials said Earlier i, the STF had arrested a driver of a private university on charges of smuggling tiger skin and wildlife organs.
A tiger skin was also seized from his possession. The officials said that they conducted the crackdown while he was planning to sell the skin in Bhubaneswar for Rs 5 lakh.. Sources said the Crime Branch has seized over 14 leopard skins in separate incidents in the last two years.