SOS, a non-government organisation working to rehabilitate destitute children, purchased the deer.

Zoo employees caught the five deer and put those into jute bags for sale.

Asked why the deer were put into bags instead of handing those over openly, zoo official Shaheed Uddin said it was their normal practice.

With this, the authorities sold 100 deer in the last four months.

RCC, the supervising authority of the zoo, in May decided to sell more than 250 deer because their maintenance cost is high.

At a press conference in May, the RCC Mayor had said, "The authorities spend nearly Tk 50 lakh for the zoo every year, Tk 31 lakh of which is spent for rearing the deer, which has become an impediment to running the zoo smoothly".

However, there are allegations that taking the opportunity, a section of zoo officials was selling deer beyond the knowledge of the RCC.