The Nilgiris district police arrested three persons from Kerala who hunted a Toda buffalo near Pykara Dam on March 5.
The three accused were identified as K. Jamsheer, 36, U. Muhammad Rasheed, 26 and K. Jishnu, 27, from Vazhikkadavu in Nilambur, Kerala.
According to the officials, the hunting of the buffalo had been informed to the police by the owner of the animal, K. Vijay Kuttan, 24, from Pudumund in Glenmorgan on March 6.
Mr. Kuttan had found that his buffalo was killed and butchered and informed the Pykara Police. Following the complaint, police began reviewing CCTV footage from the area and noticed a group of suspects in a car in the area. They traced the car to one person in Nilambur and questioned the individual, who revealed that the three accused had rented his car to visit the Nilgiris on March 5.
Police went to Nilambur and apprehended the three suspects and brought them in for questioning. During interrogation, the three men confessed to slaughtering the buffalo they had seen during their visit and for smuggling the meat into Kerala where they sold it to buyers.
The three men were formally arrested following their confession and remanded to judicial custody. The police also recovered slaughtering equipment the men had used to kill and skin the buffalo.
