Forest cops of the Athagarh Forest Division on Friday arrested one Prasanna Dehury of Rajanagar village, who is the owner of the brinjal field where the carcass of an elephant was found on Wednesday. After interrogation, he was forwarded to court, which rejected his bail plea and sent to jail, revealed Athagarh DFO Sasmita Lenka.
The DFO said that during the interrogation, prima facie evidence came to light that Dehury and his associates hunted the elephant with explosives.
The Forest Department has framed several non-bailable offences against Dehury for which his bail was rejected.
However, claiming that Dehury is innocent, villagers of Rajanagar had demonstrated before the DFO’s office for about three hours on Thursday. The locals alleged that even the poaching happened due to negligence of the forest officials, no step of disciplinary action against any staff has yet been taken by the DFO after five long days.