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CBI arrests 2012-Rhino poaching case accused from Dimapur in Nagaland
2012 was amongst the years when Assam witnessed highest numbers of rhino poaching. According to official data, in 2013 and 2014, Assam registered the highest number of poaching with 27 cases each year. It reduced to 17 in 2015 and the following year it was 18
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested an accused in a 2012-Rhino poaching case from Nagaland’s Dimapur, officials said on Thrusday. The CBI traced the accused from village Lhomithi of Dimapur and nabbed him, they said.
According to CBI, the person identified as Raidang Engti, was involved in supplying rhino horns in Assam and Nagaland
The agency had registered a first information report (FIR) following a case of poaching in Karbi Anglong district which took place in July 2012. In that incident, poachers took away the horn of dead body of an adult rhino found near Long Koi Tisso Gaon village in Karbo Anglong, said officials.
Initially, an FIR was registered at a local police station on July 3, 2012 and later the CBI took upon the case on Assam government’s request. After a thorough investigation, the central agency got hold of Engti and arrested him from Dimapur.
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CBI in a press statement on Thursday said that in the investigation, it was found that after killing the rhino (in 2021), an accused sold the horn to Engti. “The complicity of the said accused had emerged as the person through whom the poached Rhino horn was traded and transacted for a hefty amount,” CBI said.
“After the investigation, a chargesheet was filed on 31.03.2018 against five accused. Investigation was kept open regarding the sale of the rhino horn and to arrest the said accused whose name had emerged during investigation for purchasing the poached rhino horn,” added the agency.
The arrested accused will be produced before the competent court at Dimapur, according to CBI.
2012 was amongst the years when Assam witnessed highest numbers of rhino poaching. According to official data, in 2013 and 2014, Assam registered the highest number of poaching with 27 cases each year. It reduced to 17 in 2015 and the following year it was 18. The cases dropped to six in 2017 and seven in 2018. From 2019, the cases dropped continuously with three cases in 2019, two cases in 2020 and just one in 2021.
In a strong message against poaching, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma publicly destroyed approximately 2500 rhino horns in September 2021. The horns were recovered and preserved by the government for the past four decades.
In 2022, Assam recorded zero rhino poaching and in this year, one such case has been recorded so far. According to the director general of Assam police GP Singh, an anti-poaching task force is working ruthlessly in eliminating rhino poaching in Assam.
