Lucknow, July 18 (IANS) A smuggler was arrested with 5.5 kg of elephant tusk in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, about 250 kms from here, police said Friday. “We arrested the criminal Suresh Verma from the Hi Tech colony area. We also recovered a country-made pistol and two live cartridges from him”, inspector R.D. Chauhan of Pipari police station told IANS on phone.

During interrogation, Verma revealed that he has been engaging in the smuggling of animal parts for the past few years and the tusk was brought from Jharkhand, Chauhan said.

“He has confessed to smuggling the tusk to Varanasi and the consignment was meant for another criminal. We have got some lead about the other persons involved in this trade and hope to make more arrests soon,” Chauhan claimed.