Port Blair, Oct 08: Acting on information furnished by the Special Branch CID, on 06/10/12 the staff of the CID Unit apprehended five persons for their attempts to sell water monitor lizard – a Scheduled – I Species under Wild Life Protection Act, 1972.
On 06/10/12, on receipt of credible information about the trading in water monitor lizards – a Scheduled – I Species under Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 by some people, a special team comprising of S.I P.M K. Kumar, HC K. Venkat Rao, PC Mohd. Hanifa, PC Kartic Uraon and PC Vikas Kumar Yadav of PS CCS and S.I Sanjay Kumar & HC Sasi Kumar of Special Branch CID conducted two successive raids near Govt. Middle School Ograbraj and near the Water Sports Complex, Sippighat and recovered 4 live water monitor lizards which were kept in plastic gunny bags.
In the first raid, conducted near Govt. Middle school Ograbraj on road side two persons namely 1) Neeraj Kumar R/o Ograbraj and 2) Ajith Kujur R/o Manpur were apprehended red handed for possessing one live water monitor lizard and were detained. The lizard was seized U/s 50/51 of Wild Life Protection Act 1972 under the cover of seizure memo on the spot at 2345 hrs. In another raid conducted at Sippighat near water sports complex, three IRBn personnel namely 1) P.Murgeshan, 2) P.V. Mohan Lall and 3) S.Abdul Rasheed were apprehended on the spot for possessing three live water monitor lizard in the Tata Sumo. As such, all the three IRBn personnel were detained and the Tata sumo bearing Registration No. AN 01 E 7184 alongwith three live lizards were seized U/s 50/51 of Wild Life Protection Act 1972 under the cover of seizure memo on the spot on 07/10/12 at 0130 hrs. Later, on 07/10/12 the detained civilian as well as IRBn personnel along with seized properties were handed over to the forest officials for further action.
Whereas the above IRBn personnel have been found making efforts in selling of water monitor lizards, which is a gross negligence on their part. As such, all of them have been placed under suspension with immediate effect.
