Mizoram excise secretary charged under Wildlife Act

Aizawl, Nov 16 (UNI) The Income Tax department has siezed a large amount of skin and body parts of endangered animals from the Mizoram excise secretary's residence at Hyderabad yesterday, official sources said here today.

The IT sleuths seized skins of two snow leopard and a deer along with two horns of antelopes during a raid at residence of excise secretary K Narasimha, sources said.

Police sources said the raid was carried out after they recovered Rs 66 lakh from Mr Narasimha's possession at a hotel in Hyderabad last month.

Mr Narasimha had been charged under the Wildlife Act and handed over to the Wildlife department for further interrogation, sources said.

Reportedly, Mr Narasimha in a statement before the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) in Hyderabad last month said the money was given to him by Radisson Hotel managing director Ramesh Kapoor to hand over to U S Das, an employee of a Bhubaneswar-based private firm.

Earlier, IT officials had recovered Rs 2.88 crore from Kapoor at the Hyderabad airport and suspect Mr Narasimha to be acting as a broker in a land deal for some hotel project by Radisson group in Hyderabad.

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