Tusk racket busted, DMK man among 4 held by K’taka police

Acting on a tip-off, Mahalakshmi Nagar police from Karnataka picked two persons identified as Prakash of Krishnagiri and Naveen Prasad of Dharmapuri on Wednesday. The cops trapped the duo after meeting them posed as potential buyers of elephant tusks.

“They were in possession of about 12 tusks, which were all seized. They were a part of a larger network of illegal ivory traders and poachers.

The duo’s job was to find potential buyers for the ivory.

Based on their confessions, a police team from Bangalore with the help of local police arrested Khader Basha, DMK’s Anchetti union secretary and his car driver Muthusamy from Denkannikottai in Krishnagiri district on Thursday.

Police suspect the involvement of many others in the illegal trade and a search is on for one Murugan and few others belonging to the gang. Their illegal network spread across Tamil Nadu and in Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that the tusks were poached by smugglers from the reserved forests of Krishnagiri district, which boasts of a considerable population of elephants.

The seizure of such huge amounts of tusks has exposed the prevalence of rampant poaching and illegal wildlife trade in the state.

Meanwhile, a large number of the DMK party men gheraoed the Karnataka police vehicle near Denkannikottai after Khader Basha was picked. Basha was to be taken to Bangalore for further enquiry. On information, local police rushed to the spot and warned them of action, following which they dispersed.