New Delhi, Jul 26 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered two cases against the Craft Harvest and its proprietor and Shabir Ahmad Gogeree and his firm Cashmere Fine Arts for exporting prohibited wildlife articles, "shawls containing guard hair of Tibetan Antelope".

According to CBI officials, both the cases were registered by the agency on July 22 on the complaint of Deputy Commissioner of Customs Vivek Kumar.

The first case was registered against Delhi-based Craft Harvest and its proprietor for exporting six shawls containing guard hair of Tibetan Antelope valued at Rs 10.97 lakh.

The second case was registered against Srinagar-based Cashmere Fine Arts and its proprietor Gogeree for exporting 26 shawls containing guard hair of Tibetan Antelope valued at Rs 26.36 lakh.

The seizures of the 26 shawls were made by the Customs department on November 1, 2019 at the IGI Airport in Delhi after inspection by the Wildlife Inspector. And, the seizure of six shawls was made on June 7, 2019.

Vivek Kumar in his complaint also said that Craft Harvest and its proprietor did not accept the report of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun report and asked for a test of the suspected shawls from another agency. The samples were again sent to the Zoological Survey Of India, Kolkata which again confirmed that it contained guard hair of Tibetan Antelope on January 22, 2020.

Tibetan Antelope also known as Chiru is listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Act, 1972.

A CBI official said that the agency has taken over the probe and collected all the documents and the seized items in connection with the case.