Chamarajanagara: The forest officers arrested five persons on charges of attempting to sell elephant tusks illegally on Sunday December 11. Acting on a tip-off, officials chased the car of the accused at Basavapura village on the Mysore-Ooty national highway and arrested five persons red-handed.

The arrested have been identified as Rangaswamy (35), Sanjivkumar (41), N. Vinod (36), Kadiresan (45), and Selvanayagam (44), all natives of Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. It is said that the accused got the tusk from tribal community people in Tamil Nadu, who removed the tusk from a dead elephant.

The accused tried to sell the tusk to a buyer in Chamarajanagara. The officials chased the car and recovered tusks worth over Rs. 50 lakh.

The Forest Officer seized the car used in the crime and a case was registered under Karnataka Wildlife Protection Act. The accused have been sent to judicial custody.