Maha cops find two leopard cubs being smuggled in SUV, 3 held

A routine police check on the Satara-Pune Highway Monday morning led to the foiling of a smuggling attempt of two leopard cubs by three people in a sports utility vehicle, an official said.

Personnel conducting the "nakabandi" at Khed Shivpur toll plaza had stopped the vehicle and were going through the licence of the driver when faint animal purring alerted them to the presence of the two cubs, a Rajgad police station official said.

"They checked the vehicle and realised the noise was coming from two boxes kept inside. When the boxes were opened, we found two leopard cubs," he said.

The three men, including the driver, who were inside the vehicle, identified as Habib Sayyad (31), Irfan Shaikh (33) and Ayaz Pathan (40), confessed that they had procured the cubs from Bengaluru and were taking them to Pune, the official said.

"The three accused have told us that a man from Bengaluru gave them the two leopard cubs," he informed.

He said a case has been registered under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

"A probe into what the accused planned to do with the two cubs is underway. We suspect this is part of a bigger racket and more will be known once we get custody of Sayyad, Shaikh and Pathan after we produce them in court on Tuesday," he said.

The official said the leopard cubs have been handed over to Pune Municipal Corporation's Katraj Zoo, also called the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park.