bhopal

Updated: Feb 05, 2018 22:40 IST

An international smuggler of rare species of turtles has been arrested by the Madhya Pradesh forest department’s special task force (STF), the force’s officials said.

A four-member STF team led by Ritesh Sirothia, STF (wildlife crime) in-charge, arrested Manivannan Murugesan from Chennai, brought him to Madhya Pradesh via a flight on Thursday and presented him before the special court at Sagar in the afternoon.

The court sent Murugesan to a five-day STF remand, the force’s officials said.

Sirothia said Murugesan was wanted by STF, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Uttar Pradesh STF and Interpol for a long time. He was ranked third internationally in the illegal trade of rare species of turtles and was considered the kingpin of India’s illegal turtle trade market.

Murugesan’s name had surfaced first during the interrogation of Ajay Singh whom STF had arrested from Agra in June last year for smuggling Red Crown Roofed Turtle, the officer said.

Singh revealed the trafficking network of turtle smugglers across India. Smugglers took the rare turtles out of the country to Hong Kong and Singapore through two routes — via Chennai–Sri Lanka and Kolkata–Bangladesh.

Murugesan’s name surfaced again during the interrogation of wildlife smuggler Mohammad Irfan who was arrested by the STF in Kolkata few days back, Sirothia said.

Murugesan was a Singapore-based businessman and had illegal trade links in Thailand, Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, China and Madagascar, besides Singapore.

“His arrest will prove to be very significant in busting the international wildlife smuggling network,” he said.

A smuggler, Thameem Ansari was arrested in October last year from Chennai. Apart from him, the arrest of over ten poachers and traffickers led the STF to a bigger turtle trafficking network across the country .