Sonepur: Two days after recovery of a leopard carcass near Baghapali Ashram in Odisha’s Sonepur district, the forest officials arrested six persons, including the chief of the ashram, on Friday.
The six accused have been identified as Ashram chief Danabihari Saran aka Dayasagar Tharti, Surendra Pradhan, Biju Guru, Ramchandra Purohit, Purandar Tharti and Satyanarayan Meher. The claws of the wild cat were also recovered from their possession.
According to sources, the 4-year-old leopard was electrocuted in the forest. After the case was filed, the forest officials suspected the involvement of Ashram members in the incident and detained Dayasagar Tharti for questioning.
Following this, the cops arrested Tharti along with five others for removing the leopard’s claws.
It is noteworthy that the villagers Baghapalli under Ulunda range in the district detected a strong foul smell in a nearby forest where they had gone for grazing goats. After moving around the forest to trace the source of the smell, they spotted the carcass of the leopard. On closer inspection, they found that it had decomposed.
“The leopard might have died 5-6 days back. It is suspected to have been killed by a trap laid by poachers. Since electricity wires have been drawn close to the forest, the poachers laid the wire trap to catch wild boars and the leopard might have got trapped in it,” SCF Prafulla Kumar Dehury had told media.
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