MADIKERI: A group of eight people who hunted a rabbit in Kodagu district eight months ago are now facing the music, thanks to a selfie posted on Facebook by one of them. The tell-tale Facebook post caught the attention of wildlife officials from Bengaluru who lost no time in filing a suo motu case against the eight people.

Police said four persons from Bengaluru and as many from Somawarpet had a get-together in the taluk's Kothnalli village in January this year. HM Naveen, from the village and who operates a taxi in Bengaluru, reportedly organized a party in the Pushpagiri reserve forest for his friends. They used an air gun to shoot down a rabbit and prepared a dish with its meat. In a bravado act, Darshan Pandey from Bengaluru took a selfie with the dead animal and uploaded it on Facebook only to be caught by the long arm of the law.

After a criminal case was filed, all the eight accused obtained anticipatory bail in the high court. But they failed to meet the key condition set by the court for their advance bail: to file a statement to the police investigating officer about the incident.

After their anticipatory bail lapsed on August 22, Somawarpet forest officials on Monday night raided Kothnalli village, arrested Chandrashekhar, Suresh and Rajshekhar, and seized two guns from them. They were released on bail later.

One accused on the run

The fourth accused, Guruprasad, fled the raiding cops' team and suffered injuries on his leg. He was reportedly treated at a Sullia hospital and is on the run.

The four from Bengaluru -Darshan Pandey , R Manjunath, Naveen and P Janardhan -are absconding, a police officer said.

