The forest department arrested three persons from a tea garden in Alipurduar district on Sunday night while they were allegedly cooking the meat of a deer.
Officers of the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) also seized the skin of the deer from the trio.
Debasish Sharma, the deputy field director (east) of the BTR, said they had conducted a raid on the Rydak tea estate around 8pm after receiving information that deer meat was being cooked.
“We arrested three persons while they were cooking the meat. The deer skin and the meat were seized,” said Sharma.
Charges under the Wildlife (Protection) Act have been brought against Kushal Kishpotta, Etren Minj and Anil Toppo
Sources in the forest department said they would seek permission from the local court to send the samples of the meat to the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
“We want the samples to be tested to determine the deer species. We are probing the case to know where they killed the deer,” said a source.
On Monday, the trio were produced in the chief judicial magistrate’s court here. The court remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.
Around three years ago, foresters had arrested three persons from the Chuniajhora tea estate while they were carrying a deer’s carcass. Three improvised firearms were also seized from them.