Lion poaching: Main accused held

05-01-2008

Lion poaching: Main accused held

Times of India

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Prabhakar Gajakosh Nabbed From Karnataka. His Arrest Was Made On The Basis Of Cellphone Recordings

Rajkot: One of the main accused in lion poaching case, Prabhakar Keshav Gajakosh (50), was arrested in Karnataka and brought to Una in Junagadh by the CID crime branch. He is one of the prime accused in the lion poaching cases that took place in Sasan Gir forest last year. Sources said his arrest was made on the basis of m o b i l e p h o n e recordings. He was presented before the Una court with a remand application of 14 days for interrogation.

CID crime investigating the case found some number from mobile phone recordings which were in regular contact with the suspected persons arrested by them. Since the number was registered in Karnataka, they contacted their counterparts in that state and found the number in one Prabhakar Keshav Gajakosh’s name. When police raided his place, they were surprised to find 43 skins of wild animals, including one of tiger and 22 of leopard worth Rs 18 lakh. Prabhakar was arrested from his residence at Haliyal village in Karvar district of Karnataka.

Prabhakar owns a saw mill and mango orchards in Karnataka and the suspected persons, who were arrested by the police here earlier, used to work for him. He told them that if they wanted to make good money, they must kill animals for him. According to sources, Prabhakar used to instruct them what kind of stuff he wanted. Thereafter, he used to sell the skins and important body parts to big dealers. Police expect that during interrogation, he might reveal the entire story, and how he planned everything.

 “We can’t disclose further, as investigation is on,” said police inspector C R Vanerwala of Junagadh CID crime.