Four men have been arrested for gang-raping a Bengal monitor lizard in India’s Sahydari Tiger Reserve in Maharashthra.
The suspects were identified as Sandeep Tukram, Pawar Mangesh, Janardhan Kamtekar and Akshay Sunil.
Officials said the suspects were hunters who came to Kolhapur’s Chandoli village, which borders the reserve, to hunt.
Forest guards were said to have nabbed one of the suspects while the others escaped.
Howeer, the arrested suspect led officials to nearby village of Hativ village in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, where the rest were arrested.
Reports say they were arrested after a video found on the phone of one of the suspects showed the four men committing the heinous act.
A CCTV footage from the Maharashthra Forest Department reportedly captured the four men trespassing into the reserve, which the Indian government created in 2008 to converse Bengal tigers.
Other photos of various animals, including porcupines and deer, were said to have been found on the suspects’ phones.
According to Bengal monitor lizards can grow up to five and a half feet long and weigh almost 16 pounds.
They are currently categorised as reserve species under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
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