Bird Smuggling

The anti poaching squad of the state forest department has arrested three persons and recovered two wild birds – one black winged kite and two hawks - from them. The black winged kite was seized from domestic airport while the other two birds were seized from a shop in Crawford Market.
The black winged kite, seized, can easily be trained to hunt and even spying. The Indian armed forces had recently captured one such bird on India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan that was reportedly sent for spying.
Identified as Mohammed Siddiq Sayyad alias Javed, 25 and Farhan Anwar Khan, 23, the accused are residents of Dongri, while Ashfaq Momin, a resident fo Jogeshwari owns a pet shop at Crawford Market.
Siddiq Sayyad had posted an advertisement on a website on January 19 to sale black winged kite. “We received information about the advertisement and possible sale of the birds in the city on January 20,” said assistant conservator of forest SG Phale. Following the information, the officials immediately jumped into action and started surveillance of the accused. After watching his activities for almost a week, forest department officials decided to trap Mohammed Siddiq Sayyad.
Meanwhile, officials got information that he was coming to domestic airport to sale the bird to a person on January 31. Accordingly, a trap was set with the help of activists of Plant and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS), Mumbai and Mohammed Sayyad and his friend Farhan Khan were arrested when they took out the bird from the car at around 5 pm on January 31.
The duo was booked under sections 9, 39, 40, 42, 44, 48(a), 49 and 51 of Wildlife Protection Act. During interrogation, the duo confessed that the bird was procured from Ashfaq Momin. “Momin owns Royal Pet Shop at Crawford Market. The shop was raided on February 5 on information given by Sayyad,” Phale said. M