Parajang: Acting on a tip-off, a special squad of STF raided a temple and seized a leopard hide from the possession of the temple priest and his two aides.
The hide was seized from Taleswar Shiva temple at Kulei village under Parajang police limits in Dhenkanal district. Preliminary probe revealed, the accused had used the leopard hide to perform sorcery.
Initial probe has revealed a huge racket behind the killing of rare leopards. It extended to outside the state, officials said, adding the hide extracted from the killed animals is sold in lakhs.
The raid team arrested the temple’s priest and his two aides for interrogation, sources said. On the other hand, the mastermind of the racket is said to be on the run.
Meanwhile, a probe was launched into the racket that dealt with the leopard hides. “We are probing as to from where the leopard hide came, who is behind the operation of the racket and steps are being taken to arrest the kingpin,” a senior official said.
According to sources, Pritiranjan Lenka of Hanumanpada village under Gadapalasuni panchayat is the priest of the temple. He used to perform sorcery by sitting on the leopard hide.
A woman devotee who had gone to offer prayers in the temple happened to see Lenka performing sorcery and alerted other villagers who in turn called the forest officials.
Acting on the information, ranger Harmohan Nayak, forester Biswanath Soren along with other officials reached the village and arrested Lenka and seized the hide. During interrogation, he confessed to being involved in a racket and revealed the names of two of his aides.
He revealed that he had bought the leopard hide for Rs 5 lakh from a pharmacist named Jayakrushna Rout of Kanpur village in Keonjhar district. He also admitted using it for sorcery.
“Youths who did not get girls for marriage used to approach me for help. I used to perform sorcery and fix the marriage of the youths,” he said.
“I have fixed the marriage of many youths who were not able to marry and were often rejected by girls. It happened because of the power in the leopard hide,” the priest claimed.
Based on his confession, the officials registered a case and produced the three accused in a court.
PNN