Officials of the CID forest cell, with the help of a wildlife volunteers group, caught a 25-year-old software engineer while he was trying to sell the skin, nails, and teeth of a leopard.
The accused, B.S. Puttaraju, a native of Chikka Benakanakere in Turuvekere of Tumakuru district, works in an IT firm at HSR Layout.
The accused told the police that his friends who went hunting for a wild boar in a forest area shot the leopard. They later skinned the leopard, took away the nails and teeth and buried the carcass in the forest. They asked Puttaraju to sell them and share the money.
The accused had circulated a message on his social media account seeking clients and came under the radar of the wildlife activists who, posing as prospective clients, approached him and clinched a deal before alerting the CID forest cell.
Puttaraju has been booked under various sections of the Wildlife Act and efforts are on to track down his friends.
Sharath Babu, former wildlife warden, said hunting a leopard is illegal and can attract imprisonment of five to seven years.
