Varanasi: Officers of UPSTF’s Varanasi field unit and forest department on Saturday busted an interstate gang involved in cheating people by framing them in cases of poaching parts of wildlife species.Three of the gang were arrested in a joint raid of STF and forest officials at Swastik Home Stay in Faridpur under Sarnath police station. Officials said Prabhat Chaturvedi of Sehore, MP, Girdhari Maurya of Gorakhpur and Sanjeev Kumar Singh of Basti were arrested and parts of 14 monitor lizards and two tiger claws were recovered from their possession, besides Rs 1.58 lakh cash, two fake identity cards of forest officials and four mobile phones.On receiving inputs about traffickers trapping people in fake cases and extorting money, STF officials were tracking the movement of some suspicious persons. On Saturday, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau alerted STF after its Varanasi field unit team led by inspector Anil Kumar Singh coordinated with forest officials and carried out the raid.Investigators said the gang first approached targets through offers of antique coin trading. They lured them with promises of high profit and called them to a chosen spot, where banned wildlife parts had been planted. The accused allegedly tipped off authorities in the name of WCCB or other agencies, putting the target under suspicion while escaping with cash.During questioning, police officers learnt that the gang had obtained Rs 5 lakh from an acquaintance of a Cholapur resident before trying to frame him. Police are searching for absconders, while a case was registered under BNS and Wildlife Act sections.
