Bhubaneswar: Acting on a tip-off, a team of the Special Task Force (STF) conducted a raid on Tuesday afternoon near the Champali River embankment under Naktideula police station limits in Odisha’s Sambalpur district and recovered a leopard skin and other incriminating materials from the possession of one Babuli Naik of Harijan Sahi under the same police station limits.
A case (No.07 dated 12.04.2023) has been registered in this connection at the STF police station under Sections 379/411/120(B) IPC r/w and Section 51 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. The accused Babuli Naik has been arrested and forwarded to the Court of SDJM, Redhakhol in Sambalpur district on Wednesday.
The leopard skin will be sent to the Director of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) at Dehradun for biological examination. An investigation into this wildlife product smuggling case is underway.
