Alipurduar, May 23: One more person has been arrested and remanded in jail custody in connection with the death of a pregnant elephant from electrocution in a paddy field at Chhoto Choukir Bash near the Buxa Tiger reserve.

Niranjan Debnath was picked up yesterday. He had taken on lease the land, where the elephant had died on Wednesday after coming in touch with an illegal electric fence. The owner of the land, Sudarshan Debnath, had been arrested earlier.

“Niranjan was charged under Section 51C of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and was produced in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Alipurduar today. The judge rejected his bail application and remanded him in jail custody for 14 days,” said Sitangshu Bikash Mandal, the chief wildlife warden of Bengal.

He said all efforts would be made to ensure the conviction of the two arrested persons so that nobody in the future dared to erect illegal electrified fences on their land.