Hyderabad: Butcher arrested for selling spotted deer meat

HYDERABAD: Task force police arrested a butcher from Murgi Chowk in the Old City and seized the meat of spotted deer and other wild animals from his possession on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided the meat shop of Syed Zameer, 32, at Murgi Chowk and seized the meat of two spotted deers. Police also seized the meat of three rabbits and 22 quail birds from his possession.

“All the meat seized was of wild animals. We initially thought that Quail bird and Rabbit do not fall under the category of wild animals but after looking at the meat Forest officials said that they too were wild species,” East Zone Task Force inspector K Srinivas said.

On interrogation, Zameer claimed one Md Ali, 25, of Osmanbagh, supplies him the meat of wild animals. Police said that Zameer has been running the meat shop at Murgi Chowk for the past 10 years. Two years ago, Ali lured him into selling the meat of wild animals saying that there was good profit in the illegal business.

Ali has been supplying the meat of wild animals to Zameer and the latter was selling it to select customers for profit. “Ali is a poacher and he hunts the wild animals in the forest areas near Nizamabad and Kamareddy. This month, he supplied two consignments of wild animal meat to Zameer,” the inspector said.

Zameer told police that he sells the spotted deer meat for Rs 2000 a kilogram to customers. Ali is absconding and police handed over Zameer along with the seized meat to forest department officials for further investigation. Police said Zameer and Ali were earlier arrested by the forest officials in a similar case on April 18, 2017.