2 held for smuggling leopard skin

Two poachers were arrested at Jalpaiguri along with leopard skin. The security of Baikunthapur forest range captured them red-handed while they were trying to smuggle the skin to Siliguri, via Assam and Bhutan. Police said that Shankar Das and Raj Tamang, the two poachers, probably killed the leopard and then skinned it. They were carrying the skin with them. The forest security guards captured them near a dhaba at Odlabari. The skin was 10 feet tall and the value of the skin was around Rs 9 lakh in Indian market. Police learnt that those two poachers were resident of Jaigaon. They were connected to the poachers of Nepal, Bhutan and North-east India. "We took them for interrogation. They took the names of some of the animal poachers in Nepal, Bhutan, Assam and North-east India," a police officer said.