According to the police, V.P. Singh, a sub-inspector posted at Sinhani Gate Police Station received information that a man involved in an international smuggling racket in tiger skins was on his way to Delhi with two skins in his possession.

Acting on the tip-off, Singh and his team reached the bus stop and arrested Abdul Hanif. The police party also recovered two tiger skins from his bag. Abdul was immediately brought to the police station and senior officials were informed that an international gang of tiger skin smugglers had been busted by the Sinhani Gate Police.

The policemen had also started getting ready for a major press conference. But when forest department officials declared that the skins were fake, the police had to cancel the scheduled press conference.

But the men who recovered the skins insist that they had indeed seized tiger skins. The police also said that Abdul Hanif had given them the address of Asad Ulla Khan of Pune. Hanif reportedly told the police that Khan belonged to the Dawood Ibrahim Gang. He also told the police during questioning that he had bought these skins from one Omprakash Thapa, a resident of Nepal, for Rs 50,000. But he reportedly paid Thapa Rs 20,000 and had promised to pay the balance after selling off the skins.

The police say that he had to meet a customer at Palika Bazar in Connaught Place in the evening. He went to the bus stop to catch a bus to Delhi but got arrested there. The police say that Hanif would have sold the skins to Asad Ulla Khan of Pune if the customer at Delhi refused to buy the skins.