NASHIK: In the raid of Shahapur Forest Divison, seven accused were arrested for smuggling leopard skin. Another four arrests have been arrested from Nashik by the Shahapur RFO office. It includes, Trimbak Baburao Sarai (52, Kushegaon, Igatpuri), Bharat Baburao Halade (30, Phangulgavhan, Igatpuri), Sagar Namdev Sable (31, Nandgaon Kinvali, Shahapur) and Sangeeta Gurunath Dubhase (34, Igatpuri).
Now, the number of arrests in this case has increased to 11. It include 6 persons from Igatpuri taluka and two persons from Trimbakeshwar taluka of the Nashik district. This has created a stir in Igatpuri taluka. The four arrests were made after information received from the previous suspects.
On January 19, the Shahapur Forest Department set a trap on a tip-off that wild leopard skins were being traded in the vicinity of Mauje Vashala village in the forest reserve. In this trap, Prakash Chaudhary, a Range Forest Officer of Shahapur, and Santosh Jagdale, a wildlife lover, approached the accused as fake customers. The accused decided to change their meeting place from Vashala to meet at Ghatandevi temple area in Igatpuri taluka.
The suspect shown a video on leopard skin and told that he wanted to sell it. Accordingly, on February 2, it was decided to meet at Ghatan Devi temple area. Immediately after this, the place was changed to Ghoti Sinnar Road near Ubhade village in Igatpuri taluka.
Accordingly, under the guidance of Vasant Ghule, Deputy Conservator of Forests of Shahapur and Amol Jadhav, Assistant Conservator of Forests of Shahapur, Vishal Godde, Forest Range Officer of Vashala, Prashant Deshmukh, Forest Range Officer of Khardi and Prakash Chaudhary, Forest Range Officer of Shahpur set up a trap. Now, 11 arrests were made in leopard skin smuggling and forest department is carrying out further investigation.
