Three members of a family were arrested today for electrocution of two persons recently in Odisha's Ganjam district.
A 60-year-old man and his two sons of Laxminaryanpur village in the district were arrested for illegally laying live wires in their farmland to hunt wildlife, said Inspector in-charge of Khallikote Bibekanand Swain.
Police also seized quantities of wire from the farmland, he said.
A fifty-year-old man and teenaged son were electrocuted to death when they came in contact with the live wire on Tuesday. Another teenaged boy sustained injuries when he tried to save them.
As per preliminary investigation, the three accused had laid out the live wire in their farmland to poach wild animals, particularly wild boar, police said.
Herds of wild boar are roaming in the area and had allegedly destroyed standing crops. So much so that electrocution of wild animal has become a common practice in several areas of Ganjam district, particularly in the vicinity of jungles, to save the crops.
"The incident is being investigated by the police. If necessary forest officials will take steps to crackdown on poachers," Berhampur divisional forest officer Ashish Kumar Behera said.
Forest personnel have intensified patrolling in the area to detect the illegal hooking in the farm lands, the DFO added.
