Two prime accused who were involved in the poaching of a Royal Bengal Tiger rescued from Guwahati’s Umananda Island and released in Assam’s Nameri National Park have surrendered themselves in Delaisri on Wednesday night.
A few days back, the Assam Police discovered tiger skin and bones from a Bolero pickup van during an operation at Itakhola in Sonitpur district. Later, Assam Forest Department carried out an operation in connection with the discovery and recovered handmade guns from a residential house belonging to one of the prime accused, however, were unsuccessful in nabbing them.
On Wednesday night, with the joint efforts of the members of the Socio-Economic Development Organisation of Arunachal Pradesh’s Seijosa and locals of Delaisri, the prime accused in the poaching incident were nabbed from a remote area in Gohpur, where they had been hiding since the recovery of the tiger skin and bones, and then handed over to the forest officials.
The two prime accused have been identified as Ghan Basumatary and Bergo Daimary.
One of the forest officials confirmed to the reporters that the poached tiger was none other than one rescued from Umananda Island in December last year.
He said, “It is the same tiger we had rescued from Umananda Island and later released in Nameri National Park last year.”
The official further informed that three middlemen in connection with the matter were arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) while two others are absconding adding that efforts are on to nab them.
It may be mentioned that the poached adult tiger had been on a prowl near the Umananda temple on December 20 last year. The tiger had reportedly swam across the River Brahmaputra and reached the river islet. The tiger was caged after conducting a prolonged search operation.
Later on December 25, the tiger was released at the Nameri National Park after being kept under observation for four days at Assam State Zoo in Guwahati.
