National-level shooter booked for poaching in UP

Bulandshahar (UP), Jan 10: A national-level shooter has been booked for poaching after forest department officials raided his house in Khurja area and recovered photographs of rare antelope species allegedly hunted by him, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of forest officials raided the residence of Mehraj Khan, a national-level shooter, last evening and found many photograhs of antelopes like hog deer, sambhar deer and black bucks, allegedly hunted by him in various rural areas of the district, said Anupam Gupta, Conservator of Forest, Meerut Zone.

Gupta said they got the inputs of Mehraj's alleged poaching activities from a "sting operation, carried out by an electronic media channel, in which the shooter admitted that he used to organise hunting parties within the country and abroad by mailing those photographs".

An FIR under various sections of Wild Life Act 1972 has been lodged against the shooter, who is currently in Qatar for a shooting competition and action will be taken against him on his return, the official said. Antelopes are protected animals enlisted under the Wild life Act.

PTI