Bhopal: The Indore TSF team of the Forest Department has arrested Mahesh Rathi smuggler of wild animal organs absconding for the past 15-16 months and presented before the Indore court. Rathi, a resident of Indore, was arrested on March 1. This smuggler is also accused of a case in the Indore forest area since the last one year. The court has sent the accused to judicial custody.
Mahesh Rathi and his gang used to hunt and buy organs of tigers, leopards, deer, bear, double- mouthed snakes, turtles etc. from the forests of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and sold them at high prices in the international market. This gang used codeword for business such as rassi for double-mouthed snakes, kapda for animal skin etc.
Five accused have been arrested in the case in the past along with rare species of leopard skin, claws, nails, animals on the verge of extinction, black deer horns, porcupine quills, and bones of other rare wild animals and two motorcycles. The five accused, Shiva resident of Gawadi village in Barwani district, Dhannalal resident of Bijalwara village of district Khargone, Baldev resident of Sendhwa, Shakir Khan resident of Dewas and Gaffar alias Bhayyu, resident of Indore have been produced before the court.
