Mumbai: The Mumbai Crime Branch (CB) on Friday arrested five people for carrying prohibited musk. Musk in India is known as kasturi, is a substance with a persistent odour that is obtained from the caudal glands of a male deer and is extensively used as a fixative and incense material, due to its quality. It is one of the most expensive animal products. Thus, many male musk deers are killed every year.
The Crime Branch unit 8 received information that five people were coming to MIDC area in Andheri to sell banned deer musk. A CB team laid a trap and intercepted five suspicious people. During their search, one person was found possessing musk, weighing 75 gram worth Rs3 lakh in the market. According a CB officer, during the interrogation, they confessed to coming to the city to sell the musk.
After the primary investigation, the accused — Kanti Bacchubhai Jethava, 45, Praful Kapde, 49, Jignesh Doshi, 34, Ganesh Margade, 32, and Deepak Gohel, 46 — were arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act.
All the accused were later handed over to the MIDC police for further investigation.
