SEARCH FOR MISSING EX-ZOO EMPLOYEE

Star of Mysore, India
Nov 25 2004

Mysore, Nov. 25 (MRS)- The Police, for the first time, have went on
record to say that they suspect the role of a dismissed employee in
the recent deaths of animals in the City Zoo.

Police Commissioner Mr. Praveen Sood, while participating in the
interaction with the media persons yesterday, said that the Police were
searching for the dismissed employee, who is missing since two weeks.

He said till date 31 staff members of Mysore Zoo had been
interrogated. Of these, nine have been subjected to polygraph test.
The findings of the tests were awaited, he added.

But he said the tests finding were subjective evidence and not
conclusive.

The second report sought from the Forensic Science Laboratory over
the cause of death of Komala, the Armenia-bound 8-year-old jumbo,
is awaited. Since investigation is based on scientific reports,
it will take time to unearth the cases of animals deaths, he said.

With regard to the death of Komala, he said they were open-minded
and that they were neither ruling out sabotage nor negligence on the
part of doctors and staff. As a worst-case scenario, Police have
collected samples of Gajalakshmi, another elephant, that suddenly
took ill sometime ago.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress