Three police officers attached to the Ponmudi police station were placed under suspension, pending inquiry, for allegedly poaching a sambar deer and consuming its meat along with a few others.
Ponmudi Grade sub-inspector Ayoob Khan, civil police officers Rajiv and Vinod, who is a police driver, were all suspended by District Police Chief (Thiruvanthapuram Rural) P. Asok Kumar on the basis on a preliminary probe conducted by Nedumangad Dy.SP B. Anil Kumar, who detected prima facie evidence of the alleged crime.
They have been accused of poaching the animal, which has been protected under Scheduled III of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, near the twenty-first hairpin at Ponmudi on Sunday evening. Three of Ayoob’s relatives, identified as Anshad, who is an ex-serviceman, Sajeer and Sameer have been arrested by forest officials in connection with the case. However, the suspended police officers are believed to have gone absconding.
