Thamarassery: Tamil Nadu civil police officer Ootty Kannan, who is prime accused in smuggling elephant tusks, has been taken into custody by the forest department. It should be noted that he had earlier surrendered before the court for plotting to smuggle elephant tusks.  

The forest department secured the custody of Ootty Kannan for two days through the intervention of Thamarassery judicial first class magistrate court. A team led by forest range officer KV Biju is currently interrogating Kannan at the Thamarassery range office.

The officials are said to have received crucial information on elephant smuggling gangs in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Teams of forest intelligence have arrived in Thamarassery to question Kannan.  

Kannan, who had been absconding for months, eventually surrendered before the Thamarassery court. As per the information received, the accused sold smuggled elephant tusks to a Nilambur native. Following this, four aides of Kannan were arrested by the forest intelligence department in the month of August, when they had arrived in Kozhikode to resell the elephant tusks.  

Elephant tusks worth Rs 1.5 crores were seized from the gang in Kozhikode. Kannan is believed to be the mastermind behind the smuggling. Elephants in Tamil Nadu forests are often brutally killed by such gangs.