PUNE: The crime branch of the Pune police arrested two men from
Aurangabad and recovered a tiger’s skin worth Rs 5 lakh from them on Nehru Road on Saturday evening.
A team headed by senior inspector Arun Waykar arrested the two men identified as Rameshwar Harishchandra Deshmukh (35) and Vijay Ganpat Jagtap (38). A case against both has been filed with the Samarth police station under the provisions of Wild Life (Protection) Act.
According to the police, the duo came to city on a motorcycle with the skin which commands a price of Rs40 lakh in the
international market. Acting on a tip-off, the police team set a trap to nab them on Nehru Road. The police had informed the forest department.
Police said both are farmers in Aurangabad. They do not have any previous criminal record.
During interrogation, the two men told the police that a ‘guruji’ had given them the hide about six years ago after they took care of him. The two were in need of money and someone in Aurangabad had informed them that they should go to Pune for customers.
Forest officials inspected the hide and said it was an original. Police now have launched a hunt for the “guruji” to ascertain how he possessed the tiger skin.