Two brothers arrested in fatal shooting of Kuno cheetah

The Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force arrested brothers Bhagwan Singh and Pritam Singh in connection with the fatal shooting of KNG22, a 19-month-old cheetah, and said investigators recovered a firearm linked to the incident. The STF said Bhagwan Singh was arrested on October 31 and that information from his questioning led investigators to his brother. The agency said the brothers were hunting near Nitanwas village in Sheopur district when the male cheetah was shot. Investigators later took the men to the area and recovered a licensed firearm from a forest in Morena district, according to the STF. The STF said Bhagwan Singh told investigators that he fired at the cheetah with the firearm while the brothers were hunting. That account, including the alleged admission, has been reported by the agency and has not been independently established. The brothers face a case under India’s Wildlife Protection Act. KNG22 was found injured on October 25 in the Morena territorial forest division, outside Kuno National Park. A monitoring team took him to Kuno before he was moved to a veterinary facility in Jabalpur for treatment. He died early on October 27. Medical accounts say five...