Darjeeling: A leopard was trapped and killed at a tea garden here on Thursday.
A man identified as Asish Chettri was arrested in this connection and the leopard skin was recovered from his possession.
It is alleged Chettri was trying to smuggle the animal skin to Bhutan. "We had got a tip-off from our sources. Posing as a Bhutanese customer we made a plan to buy the skin. We had offered him more than three lakhs rupees for it. We were waiting for him on the national highway near Odlabari in the Mal Block of the Jalpaiguri district. Chettri arrived on a motorbike along with another youth. The other youth got suspicious and fled from the spot. We arrested Chettri and the seized the leopard skin," said Sanjay Dutta, Range Officer, Belakoba Range.
Asish Chettri had studied at a renowned school in Darjeeling. His father Pradip Chettri is a police officer and posted in Siliguri.