(IN): Ivory antiques seized in Cuttack

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Link:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/Ivory_seized_in_Cuttack/articleshow/346\

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Ivory antiques seized in Cuttack*

9 Sep 2008, 1344 hrs IST,PTI

 

CUTTACK: Two persons were arrested and 53 exquisitely carved pieces of ivory

were recovered from them, a senior police official said.

 

" We got specific inputs about the trade in ivory antiques in the city and

were alert. Malgodown police accosted two persons at College Square this

morning and seized the ivory materials from them. We had never expected that

the haul of banned materials would be so huge, " Deputy Commissioner of

Police A N Sinha said.

 

The seized ivory, kept in a bag and weighing about 20 kg, was estimated to

cost over Rs one crore in the international market. It is also believed that

an inter-state racket was behind this illegal trade.

 

Police said the arrested persons--Kishore Kumar Naik of Kendrapara and

Pramod Mohanty of Jagatsinghpur district-- would be handed over to forest

department for initiating cases and prosecution under relevant sections of

the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

 

Forest officials said the seized ivory antiques are very old and must have

been procured from outside the state.

 

" It seems the consignments must have been stolen either from a museum or

from some royal family collection, " said a forest official.

 

Police have not been able to ascertain the source and destination of the

consignment yet. A senior police official however, maintains that since

there are no markets in the state for such antiques, the consignment was

definitely on its way to some outside destination.

 

If convicted, the arrested men could be jailed for three to seven years.

 

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