Langurs make madari millionaire, land him behind bars for illegal trade

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi,  July 04, 2015, DHNS: A 36-year-old primary school dropout became a millionaire, providing the services of langurs at offices harassed by  monkeys. Monkeys can’t stand langurs.

Police caught him on Friday when he was travelling in a Scorpio with four members of his interstate gang – and four langurs in the back of the SUV.

Badarpur-resident Shahid Khan was taking them to a cloth mill in Phagwara in Punjab’s Kapurthala  district.

Shahid hired out langurs and their handlers to companies like Tata Motors, JCB, Escorts Group, and a warehouse of a luxury car maker in southeast Delhi’s Okhla, police said.

“The langurs were hired from Shahid to drive away monkeys and tackle the monkey menace. He earned Rs 10,000-15,000 per langur against their services for a month,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

Shahid was born in a poor family of south-east Delhi’s Badarpur. At a very young age, he started working as a madari and used to handle monkeys and bears.

For the last four years, Shahid has been catching baby langurs from Pali jungle in Haryana’s Faridabad district and supplying them to people involved in langur trade across the country.

“He became a millionaire with the illegal business and purchased a Mahindra Scorpio SUV. He used the vehicle for transportation of langurs,” Yadav added.

On Friday, Delhi Police were tipped off about the gang by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) of Union Environment and Forests Ministry. Sub-inspector Nagender Singh was informed that a langur trader will come near south Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan along with his accomplices in a Scorpio.

A police team signalled the Scorpio to stop.

“Shahid tried to flee, but the SUV was forced to stop by our team,” Yadav said. Shahid and his four gang members Barish, 20, Sunil Kumar, 20, Shahid Ali, 26, and Golu, 20, were in the SUV. Golu drove the car while the others were langur handlers.

The four langurs were recovered from the boot-space, stuffed in four gunny bags. They were between 12 and 18 months old, and were called Sonu, Monu, Kundan and Mangal. A case under Wildlife Protection Act has been registered with Crime Branch police station.