Mangaldai: Three persons were arrested by the forest protection personnel of the Orang National Park and Tiger Reserve for the alleged killing of a full-grown Royal Bengal tiger.
The accused persons have been identified as Ajibur Rahman, Hasmat Alia and Mohammad ML.
All the three accused are residents of the No 2 Bosa Simalu village.
They were apprehended based on an input from a hideout in the Lahoria Char of Morigaon district along the Southern border of the Tiger Reserve.
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The accused had been on the run Since June 4 after the forest department had found a tier carcass buried in one of their relatives’ (Ajibur’s brother Gajibur’s) house.
It has been suspected that the tiger was killed by poisoning.
The forest department officials are now awaiting the post mortem report.
Sources in the forest department further said that the accused had confessed to having planned to sell the tiger body parts on the black market.
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The body parts were supposed to be sold at a price of around Rs 10 lakh.
The source further stated that the accused, the mastermind of the plan, Ahamad Ali is still absconding.
All the three accused have been booked under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act while the search operations to nab two of their accomplices are on.