Bagaha, May 17: A 5-foot-long raw skin of an adult leopard was seized in an operation jointly carried out by officials of the forest department and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in Raghia range of Valmiki Tiger Reserve early on Friday morning.

“The leopard seemed to have been killed in the last seven to 10 days. Satya Narain Patwari and Om Prakash Patwari belonging to Naurangiya Done area were nabbed with the hide while delivering it. The duo were sent to jail,” said Kamaljeet Singh, the divisional forest officer of VTR division-I.

The DFO added that following an intelligence tip-off, some members of the joint team approached the two men posing as customers on Thursday evening and paid them an advance amount. “We trapped them on Friday morning when they reached with the leopard skin for delivery,” Singh said.

“The injury marks on the seized leopard skin indicated that it might have been speared to death after being trapped in a net,” he added.