Five held for selling jumbo tusks

Five people who tried selling elephant tusks near Govardhan Talkies in Tumkur Road on Monday morning were arrested by police.

The arrested were Prabhakaran P (44), Karanakaran (37) and Shakthivel (34) from Tamil Nadu and locals Krishnamurthy N (52) from Bangalore City Railway Quarters and Gopi M (39) from Bommanahalli.

Police believe the five to be middlemen who tried selling four pieces of tusks in the city, while they suspect that the three others accused in the case - Muni Raju, Annamalai and Guru from Tamil Nadu- have sourced the animal parts. Police suspect the two had killed an elephant to remove the tusks.

The RMC Yard police received information that five men were carrying tusks at the road behind the Govardhan Talkies at 9.30 am on September 2.

“We had information that the group were trying to contact their associates in Bengaluru to sell the tusks,” the RMC Yard police said, adding that the men transported the tusks from Tamil Nadu by train.

At 10 am, a police team surrounded the five men, arrested them and recovered four tusks kept in a large plastic bag.

The five arrested were produced before a magistrate and were remanded to judicial custody on Tuesday. Police are searching the three men who sourced the tusks. All eight have been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act and the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.