India: Two more poachers were arrested from the northern range of the sixth addition of Kaziranga National Park who confessed to have killed a rhino at Panpur in Sonitpur district on May 29.

Sono Ngaihte of Churachandpur in Manipur along with Kamal Tawang of Lakhimpur in Assam were arrested at Gohpur.

The duo were arrested on the basis of statements by poachers Anwar Islam and Musabbar Rahman. Forest officials came to know about a mastermind who gave Rs 1 lakh to another person based in Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh, identified as Atho Gadi, to bring a bottle of poison to kill the rhino.

Range officer Pranjal Baruah said Uthanboi of Manipur, the mastermind, was at Panpur on May 29. Ngaihte, who has links with Gadi, was paid Rs 1 lakh and a driver, Kamal Tawang, helped them.

They were handed over to wildlife division of northern range by the Tezpur chief judicial magistrate's court and were remanded in judicial custody for four days, Baruah said.

He said altogether 10 people were involved in the May 29 poaching of whom four were arrested and six are absconding.

(Source: The Telegraph)