Two held for possessing leopard skin

Vadodara: Two persons were arrested with a leopard skin from Surkheda village of Chhota Udepur district on Wednesday.
The forest department officials raided the house of Dahya Vankar and his nephew Jenti Vankar when they received a tip-off from Rajesh Bhavsar of Gujarat Society for Prevention of Cruelty on Animals.
“We found Dahya and his wife in possession of the leopard skin. As his wife did not have any role, we let her go. Dahya told us that his nephew was involved with him,” said deputy conservator of forest Nilesh Pandya.
Later during the interrogation, the duo said that they had kept the leopard skin for tantric activities after which they intended to sell it off. “Our teams are investigating if they had sold leopard skin in the past and where and when did they kill this leopard for its skin,” Pandya added.
The police, which have detained the accused duo, said they will be formally arresting them once their test report of Covid-19 comes in.