Gujarat: Two held for trying to sell ‘lion nails’

Following the arrest of the two, a magisterial court has sent them to judicial custody after rejecting their bail applications, on Friday.

The two accused have been identified as Ravi Kashyap (30) and Tanmay Punj (23), both residents of Mehsana.

Acting on a tip-off, Mehsana district forest officials arrested two persons under the provisions of Wildlife Protection Act for trying to sell “lion nails”. Following the arrest of the two, a magisterial court has sent them to judicial custody after rejecting their bail applications, on Friday. With this, the forest officials are also planning to send the ‘nails’ to forensic science laboratory to ascertain if they are real or fake.

The two accused have been identified as Ravi Kashyap (30) and Tanmay Punj (23), both residents of Mehsana.

As per Range Forest Officer V K Chaudhary, who is an investigating officer in the case, they had got a tip-off that Kashyap was trying to sell three lion nails in Mehsana town. So, after laying a trap, Kashyap was arrested red-handed with three nails of lions, on July 14. During interrogation, Kashyap also revealed that he got the nails from Punj. Subsequently, Punj was also arrested and the forest officials recovered one more nail from him.

Chaudhary said that a magisterial court, on Friday, rejected the bail applications of the two accused after which they were sent to Mehsana sub-jail under judicial custody. He added that the four nails will be sent to FSL to scientifically ascertain if they are real or fake.

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