Five wildlife smugglers caught with pangolin in Varanasi

VARANASI: In a joint action of UP special task force and forest officials, a pangolin was recovered after arrest of five wildlife smugglers with two licensed weapons and a SUV from Chitaipur area under the limits of Lanka police station.
STF’s Varanasi field unit in-charge Vinod Singh said that on being tipped off by Wildlife Crime Control Bureaue New Delhi, a joint team of both departments was formed. This team cordoned Chitaipur area on Friday night and succeeded in intercepting an SUV (UP65 BY 7007), he said adding, when the SUV was checked one pangolin was found packed in a gunny bag.
Following this recovery the cops arrested Arun Kumar Singh, Prabhat Singh of Varanasi, Bhuvanendra Vishwakarma, Deepak Chawdhary of Mirzapur and Vimalesh of Chandauli.
Licensed rifle, pistol and live cartridges were also recovered from their possession. Singh said that following this haul all arrested persons and pangolin were given under the custody of forest officials, who produced them before the court on Saturday and also applied for custody remand for further interrogation in this case, he added.