Leopard skin seized from a hotel in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, May 20: A leopard skin was seized from the city today and the police detained four traders in this connection.

Acting on a tip-off that some people were planning to sell a leopard skin, the police laid a trap and caught four persons along with the animal skin from a city-based hotel in the Bajrakabati area, said deputy commissioner of police Amitendra Nath Sinha.

All the accused are in the age group of 18 to 20 years and belong to Mundamarai village of Aska in Ganjam district. Police sources said they were trying to sell the skin of an adult leopard for the last few days.

“We had specific information that the group that was planning to sell the leopard skin in a hotel. Later, posing as customers, we approached them and negotiated to buy the skin,” said Sinha.

Addressing a news conference today, Sinha revealed that for the last couple of days, negotiations were on with the traders. Finally, they agreed to sell the skin for Rs 10,000. However, the cost of the leopard skin could be much more in the international market.

The case will be handed over to officials of the forest department who have more expertise in the field. Police are trying to ascertain whether the leopard was killed by the accused or had they just procured it from sellers. So far, the accused have maintained that they had bought the skin from poachers in Ganjam district.

“Today, we will hand over the case to the forest department for further investigation,” Sinha added.

In September 2009, the city police had seized antique ivory artefacts worth crores from two persons. The seized ivory products had motifs similar to erotic sculptures of the 13th century Konark temple and the haul included around 53 ivory items weighing nearly 20kg.

Two persons, Krushna Kumar Nayak and Pramod Kumar Mohanty of Kendrapara and Jagatpur area, were also arrested from the College Square area in connection with this seizure.