Police said four motorcycle-borne men Arif Sangolli, Piraji Rawoot, Salim Pathan and Sadanand Manekar, all residents of Belgaum, were arrested when they were trying to smuggle the tusks to Maharashtra.
The police suspect the tusks were poached in the Dandeli forests. They had wrapped the tusks in a gunny bag and were moving in the remote villages avoiding checkpoints on the main roads.
The police, noticing the men moving suspiciously, stopped them on the Chikodi-Ankali road and seized two tusks –– one 34 inches and another 36 inches.
They spilled the beans during the interrogation that they were given the tusks by four others –– Wilson D’Souza, Govind Sutar, Mahadev Ghatge and Yashwant Tambolkar, all residents of Khanapur. The poachers were arrested from Belgaum railway station.
DH News Service
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