NAGPUR: The lure of fast bucks landed two youths from well-to-do families behind bars on Wednesday, when they were caught selling a 53-year-old trophy tiger skin online.
Devesh Subhashrao Raut (29) and Kapil Gangadharrao Devke (31), both residents of Civil Lines, Daryapur, Amravati district, were trying to sell the trophied skin of a full-grown tigress from a city hotel on Wardha Road.
The skin is 8ft 4 four inch in length and it could fetch more than Rs 25 lakh in the international market. The two youths were quoting a price of $400,000 or Rs 2 crore to sell the skin. Undercover cops trapped the duo in room no. 209 of Hotel Airport Centre Point by posing as buyers from America and fixing a deal through a local agent via the Internet.
It is perhaps the first case of cyber crime against wildlife exposed by city crime branch sleuths, who acted on a tip-off by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), western region.
Devesh and Kapil hit upon the idea to sell the tiger skin after reading about popular online shopping mall bazee.com and the new that a tiger skin was under the hammer for $1 million on the site. This particular skin was being touted as the world's largest tiger skin, at 11 feet 7 inches.
Devesh, an MSc in computers, and Kapil, a BSc graduate, also opened an online account and mentioned details about the skin and its genuineness. The Raut family had been in possession of the skin since 1958, when tiger hunting was still a sport. The skin had a mounted skull with eyes and jaws intact.
Police sources said their advertisement was spotted on 'tradeindia.com', where the duo had bragged about their business, including claiming the ability to supply various types of tiger skins and trophies for different purposes. They had advertised seven types of products on 'tigerskin.tradeindia.com'. Devesh had mentioned his surname as 'Patil' on the website.
The skin had been inherited by Devesh's father Subhashrao from his grandfather Vitthalrao, who was a hunter and had shot seven tigers in the forests of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The tigress, whose skin was being traded, was shot by Vitthalrao in the forests of Warud in Amravati in 1958.
"We have an ownership certificate of the skin. It was renewed in 2003 by Amravati divisional forest officer (DFO)," Devesh said.
While Devesh is jobless, Kapil runs a computer institute in Daryapur. The idea behind selling the skin was to make fast bucks. Both the accused denied they were settling a deal for the skin at Rs 50 lakh.
"We wanted to gift the tiger skin and hence wanted to verify the credentials of the persons to whom handed over the skin. Hence, we came to the city hotel where we were called. Under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972, gifting of tiger skin is allowed," Devesh told TOI.
Wildlife wing officials said Section 43 of the WPA, which deals with regular transfer of animals etc states that persons in possession of captive animals, trophies, articles cannot transfer or sell them. "You can inherit them but cannot gift. The vehicle used in the crime has also been seized," a senior wildlife officer said. The accused had come to the city in a Santro car owned by Kapil. The car has been seized.
Subhashrao, father of the accused, says Devesh and Kapil were going to gift the skin. "The seven tiger skins which were in our possession earlier were also gifted to other relatives," he said.
City police chief Ankush Dhanvijay had directed deputy commissioner of police Dilip Zalke of crime branch to supervise the trap after the WCCB sought their help. Assistant commissioner of police, crime branch, Nilesh Sawant led the team to conduct the operation. "The probe would be handed over to the forest department," said senior PI Sampatrao Bhosle of Sonegaon police station where the offence was registered.
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