Times of India, TNN | Oct 20, 2016

Gurgaon: Bheema, a notorious tiger poacher and master of disguise who evaded police in three states for 15 years, was snared in Gurgaon this week as law enforcers finally saw through his latest camouflage. Bheema was dressed like an ascetic in saffron robes when the cops nabbed him outside his house in Old Gurgaon.

The last time police came close to arresting him, this March, Bheema had managed to escape by disguising himself as a beggar. A team of informers checking on Bheema's whereabouts had spotted a monk frequently coming to the house in Surat Nagar, speaking with its residents for a while and then going away. The police decided to move in when the 'sadhu' was spotted again on October 17 afternoon. Bheema had no chance of escape. After confirming the man they arrested was indeed Bheema, police took him to the environment court in Faridabad on Tuesday and got his custody for two days.

Bheema is wanted in half a dozen cases of poaching in Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The 47-year-old is a member of the Bawaria gang and had been arrested in Uttarakhand's Chamoli in 2002. But he got bail and slipped under the radar to continue with his illegal trade of smuggling tiger skin, meat and bones.

The house in Surat Nagar, where Bheema's wife and six children live, has been under observation since 2008. Police sources said Bheema also sporadically lived in the house but still managed to evade arrest every time they got close.



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