The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence conducted searches at national shooter Prashant Bishnoi’s house in Meerut on Saturday night. Leopard and black buck skins, 140 weapons, 50,000 cartridges and ₹1 crore in cash were among the items seized.
Mr. Bishnoi is the son of Devendra Kumar, a former Army Colonel. A senior DRI official the search was in connection with a case of disproportionate assets. Police have detained four people for questioning.
Antlers, bones, ivory, stuffed deer, sambhar and blackbuck and about 117 kilograms of meat, believed to be that of neelgai, were also seized from the house at Civil Lines here in the western U.P. town. The meat will be sent to labs in Dehradun for testing.
No arms licence
The DRI officials took more than 17 hours to finish the search operation, conducted jointly with the State wildlife and forest department officials and the police.
Initially the officials were told by Prashant’s family that the cartridges were given to him by the government for practice. But they were unable to produce the licence.
Sanjeev Kumar, a forest department official who was part of the search team, said Mr. Kumar was suspected of running a wildlife poaching racket with his son. “Foreign rifles and pistols were recovered. Licences of arms were not found.
The team asked the retired Colonel about his son’s whereabouts, but he has not revealed much, he told the media.
Search on for Prashant
As the searches were being conducted, Devendra Kumar told the media that he knew nothing about the alleged activities of his son as he stayed in Bareilly, where he ran a college. “He should be punished if he is engaged in illegal activities,” he told the media.
No arrests have been made as yet. Police have been deployed outside Prashant’s house in Meerut. Several teams have been formed to look for the shooter, who is allegedly absconding.
