3 held for possessing leopard skin

Three persons were arrested on charges of possessing leopard skin. They were caught with the leopard skin while travelling in an autorickshaw at Kavundikkal in Attapadi on Thursday.

“The skin shows that the deceased leopard was around two-and-a-half years old. We also confiscated the autorickshaw, a single barrel country gun, two mobile phones and one search light from the arrested persons,” said Agali Range forest officer M P Prabhakaran, who headed the the forest department team which arrested the three persons.He said that the skull of the leopard, which was buried on the compound of their house, was also recovered.

The arrested persons were identified as Sabu Joseph, 47, son of Joseph, Nallupangil Veedu, Nelliampathy, Agali and his son, Bineesh, 27 and Jinson, 30, son of Kuttichan, Pulliyara, Chittur, Attapadi.

“The arrested persons said they had killed the leopard one year ago and consumed around 30 kg of its meat,” Prabhakaran said.