Bimal Rava being taken to court. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar, Dec. 1: The kingpin of a gang involved in smuggling animal parts was arrested from the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary last night.

The skin of an adult leopard, a 1ft long ivory and a jaw of a rhino were seized from his house in Suripara, 30km from here.

Based on a tip-off, forest staff had followed Bimal Rava into the Chilapata II compartment of Jaldapara around 10pm.

The foresters from Jaldapara East and West ranges were led by Buddhadeb Mandal and Ranjan Talukdar.

They spotted the poachers by the moving light of the torches and gave them a chase. While three poachers escaped, Bimal was caught. He had a dagger with him.

During interrogation, the forest staff came to know that Bimal had stored some animal parts in his house. He also revealed the names of his gang members.

This afternoon, Bimal was forwarded to the court of additional chief judicial magistrate of Alipurduar. He has been remanded in jail custody for 14 days.

According to the forest department, there are seven cases pending against Bimal from 2000 to 2007.

In 2000, Bimal along with his accomplices had chased a rhino in Jaldapara to kill the animal. After that Bimal was arrested. Five years later, he was charged with poaching a tusker.

Ujjwal Ghosh, the DFO of WildLife III said: “Bimal was the kingpin of a gang involved in poaching wild animals. Earlier, too, he was arrested but had come out on bail after three months. We will start a custody trial so that he cannot escape.”