Four accused confess in Junnar forest poaching case

Pune: Four key accused indivisuals among 21 people who were arrested for attempting to poach wild animals in the Rajur forest range of Junnar have now confessed to the crime, said forest officials on Saturday.The forest dept conducted a raid on Tuesday at 1pm following intelligence received regarding such activities in Hadsar. A group of 21 people had set up traditional traps 20ft in length and 6ft in height to hunt wild animals.The four accused, Nilesh Kedari, Ramesh Kedari, and Pradeep Kedari from Surale, and Kisan Bhale from Hadsar, were found misleading investigators and were remanded to two days of custody by the court of Honorary First Class Judicial Magistrate on Wednesday."On Friday, they confessed to the crime and took us to the area where they set up a camp in reserve forest land. We also found weapons used for hunting and under the Indian Evidence Act 2023, we registered an offence against them. They stated that they usually capture sambar deer, barking deer, or wild boars for eating regularly. This has been a practice they followed for long," said Pradeep Chavan, RFO, Junnar.The poachers, hailing from Surale, Hadsar, Tejur and Manganewadi villages, were caught and 21 traps and 10 two-wheelers used to transport them were seized. All 21 individuals were and questioned. 17 of them were released on bail after they confessed.