New Delhi:  In a high drama which lasted several hours into midnight, Delhi police yesterday apprehended five traders in Jahangirpuri dealing in illegal mongoose hair brushes.

About 42 kilograms of raw mongoose hair and 2757 mongoose hair brushes were seized by the investigating officers late at night from five different premises owned by them.

The hideouts of these illegal contraband items were identified following an under cover operation by People for Animals, Haryana (PFA) and assisted by Wildlife Trust of India. The local police was later alerted about the hideouts. Officials of the wildlife department (Delhi government) were present during the proceedings.

Interrogated traders claimed that the goods in their custody have already been declared to the concerned department for disposal and that the seized items were not meant for sale. As per their account, the contraband items had been declared to the wildlife department in the year 2002.

However, officials investigating the case refute these statements made by the five accused. According to Saurabh Sharma, Advocate of WTI, “Police has now sought legal opinion from Chief Prosecutor, Rohini Court to proceed in the case.”

According to Ashok Kumar, Vice Chairman of WTI, “It needs to be verified whether the seized items match the descriptions, which the accused have claimed to have made in the declaration and whether the declaration is real. It should also match the quantity of goods recovered with the supposed declaration.”

Meanwhile, police is trying to establish the original source of these goods, whether the seized items were of old stock as claimed and whether there was an attempt to sell the goods by the accused.

Wildlife experts estimate that about 1000 mongooses might have been killed to obtain 42 kilograms of mongoose hair. Roughly, to obtain 1 kg of mongoose hair about 25 mongooses are required to kill.

In the year 2002, the Government of India had upgraded the protection of the common mongoose to schedule II of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (WPA). Under this provision, the law prohibits hunting or trading of the species.