Seven held for poaching wild boar in Asifabad

. The accused persons were produced before court and remanded in judicial custody. Another accused Kamlesh Thakur from the same village is still at large

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: Seven persons were arrested o charges of poaching a wild boar by setting up an electrified fence in the forests of Easgaon village in Kaghaznagar mandal on Tuesday. Meat of the animal was seized from them. One accused person was absconding.

District Forest Officer Neeraj Kumar Tebriwal said that Ashok Thakur, Deepak Thakur, Pranab Mandal, Aravind Dharami, Goutham Sarkar, Shankar Bepari and Kammari Pochamalli all belonging to Easgaon village were apprehended for poaching the wild boar. The accused persons were produced before court and remanded in judicial custody. Another accused Kamlesh Thakur from the same village is still at large.

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The DFO refuted allegations levelled against forest officials that they man-handled the accused persons by locking them in a room on Monday. He stated that the medical report of the doctors proved that the officials did not beat the accused persons. He regretted that certain political parties were trying to politicise the issue.

Late on Monday night, activists and leaders of the BJP staged a protest in front of the office of Sirpur (T) forest range officer seeking action against a forest range officer Iqbal and section officer Saddam alleging that they were man-handling the accused persons by locking them in a room under the guise of interrogations. Heavy police force was deployed at the office.