From IndiaTVNews – amended where appropriate.

New Delhi, Sep 10 : Two rare Slow Loris ‘monkeys ‘were seized by alert CISF guards at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday from three Dubai nationals who had come from Thailand, and were about to leave for Dubai. This video link highlights the horrors those lorises went through.

(AN: the pygmy loris does not occur in Thailand so this is a double international smuggling that these animals suffered through)

During frisking, one tiny monkey of species pygmy Loris was found from the underwear of one of the passengers. The passenger, in fact, had worn two underwears, and the tiny ‘monkey’ was wrapped in a sock.

Another tiny’ monkey’ of the same species was found abandoned in a dustbin of the terminal while the search was in progress.

We should note that the PRESS has picked this up as funny with headlines like ‘monkey in his pants’ but imagine the suffering these guys went through. How can this horror story turn comedy?

The shift-in-charge of CISF was instructed to call in wildlife experts and Delhi Police was also informed. The officials came at around 5 pm, and all three passengers were booked under various sections of law.

There was a five-hour gap in air transit, and the way the three passengers were walking caught the attention of security guards. They appear to stumble as they walked and all the three were stopped for frisking.

The three passengers admitted that they have been indulging in this smuggling trade earlier too.

The cost of these pygmy lorises is very high in the Middle East and they are used for making sex stimulant medicines and for sorcery

The newspaper quoted a customs official saying the men were fined and sent back to Bangkok with the protected species and eggs they were trying to smuggle. AN this is terrible as they are also illegal to import them into Thailand! But another newspaper says this:

Both the monkeys have been sent to Raja Garden hospital for treatment, where their conditions is said to be critical.

Let’s hope they did not get sent back to Thailand poor guys…