Ulaanbaatar
Alleged murder of snow leopard biologist T.Lkhagvasumberel under investigation
SocietyUlaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ According to the Police Department’s spokesperson B.Baatarkhuu, Deputy chairman of State Investigation Department and his team have been working on the alleged murder case of T.Lkhagvasumberel, the biologist of Snow Leopard Trust, who was found dead from the Khuvsgul Lake on November 11 last year after being reported missing for five days.
A wide-range investigation is underway, he said. Accordingly, the investigating team has integrated the three previous assaults that befell on late T.Lkhagsumberel, also called Sumbee among his friends and family.
Sumbee had always been fighting to stop the gold mining operations in Tosonbumba Mountains in Omnogovi (South Gobi) aimag and to protect the leopards that inhabite the area.
Lawyer of the victim’s family Mr Ts.Baasandorj has mentioned in one of his interviews that the police department of Khuvsgul aimag "had instigated legal proceedings considering the case as a suicide”. However, the case is under investigation on the motives that the probability of murder is higher in this case.
The second part of “Uncensored Reporting” TV program themed “On the track of murder of biologist T.Lkhagvasumberel” was aired on C1 Channel on Thursday evening. As such, many groups of people are assembling to shed some light on this mysterious case.
The government took Tost and Tosonbumba Mountains, located in Gurvantes soum of Omnogovi, under state reserve category in December, banning all mining operations in the surrounding area and cancelling total of 16 special permits.
There are 22-24 snow leopards roaming this area.
