Four persons were arrested in Ahmedabad in Gujarat allegedly with an elephant tusk weighing 13.9 kg that they planned to sell for Rs 35 lakh, a police official said on Sunday.
The four were held on a tip off, which was confirmed through a dummy customer to whom one of the accused agreed to sell the tusk, a release from the Crime Branch said.
The accused has told police he knew the family of slain sandalwood smuggler Veerappan as he had stayed in Tamil Nadu between 1999 and 2006 and could get more tusks, the Crime Branch release added.
The tusk was brought to Ahmedabad from Gir Somnath by two wanted accused around a month back, while the four who have been arrested were involved in attempts to sell it, the official said.
They have been charged under the Wildlife (Protection) Act and sections 379 and 411 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), while the task was sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for examination, he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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