Forest department officials arrested two men on Thursday for hunting down and killing a sub-adult spotted deer in the Hyderabad Central University grou-nds. The two — K. Ashok, 26, and K. Naresh, 28 — are the sons of a carpenter and an attender working at the University.
They had sold some of the meat and also eaten some of it. Forest officials found two to three kilos of deer meat in the refrigerator of one of the accused.
The deer was killed on March 18. Following an alert received through the round-the-clock helpline, 155364, on March 21 night, forest officials raided Ashok’s house, where they found the meat stashed
away in the refrigerator. The two were arrested on Thursday.
They had allegedly sold the meat for Rs200-250 per kilo. The duo, however, say they found the deer dead and did not hunt it. They are now being questioned and will be booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. If found guilty, they will have to pay a fine of up to Rs2,000 and face a jail term of up to three years.
Students on the campus were shocked by the news. “Very few deer enter the campus. I’ve spotted a peacock, snakes, but never a deer in the one year I have been here,” said a student.