Broken piece of rhino horn sold to Ex Nagaland MLA, reveals arrested smuggler

''Manshing Terang of Diphu of Karbi angling district, confessed that he sold the broken piece of rhino horn to a former MLA in Nagaland and while he handed over it, he also met the wife of the ex-legislator,'' said Pirai B, assistant conservator of forest.

According to sources, Terang is a reputed contractor and a businessman in Diphu who is involved with several socio-cultural activities in the district. He was arrested from Diphu on Monday for smuggling rhino horn.

The forest staffs of Kaziranga have arrested 11 rhino horn smugglers over the past few days.

Ramesh Gogoi, DFO, Kaziranga said that the rhino was initially recovered during patrolling by their two forest staffers- Habibur Rahman and Ashok Bhuyan. Afterwards, the forest staffs handed over horn to social worker, Rameshwar Signar in Ingley Pathar village of Karbi angling, which is close to Kaziranga. Rameshwar, with the help of two others subsequently gave it to Terang who later sold it to the former Nagaland MLA.

A forest officer who is engaged in the investigation said, ''our investigation to recover the horn is going on in full swing, we believe that our probe is on the right track and the investigation might expose some political leaders in Nagaland.''

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