Hummingbird News Desk
KRISHNAGAR, 17 JUNE: An international racket dealing in snake venom was busted from Kapa More in Kanchrapara of North 24 Paraganas on Wednesday, and five persons were arrested in a major joint operation by the Army Intelligence and Bijpur police, officials said.
The sleuths of the Army Intelligence along with officers of Bijpur police station seized a seizable quantity of snake venom, estimated to be worth around Rs 6 crore, from a car, they said adding that they have also seized the car the racketeers used.
During the raid, one racketeer of the gang, however, managed to flee from the site, they added.
Police officials said the accused have been identified as Akhtar Ujjaman (26) of Nadia, Ganesh Mondol (35) of Ranaghat, Debashis Majumdar (25) of Santipur, Sujit Barman (35) of Hooghly and Ramchandra Ghosh (36) of Bhimpur, a senior officer said.
The snake venom was kept in a glass-made jar, he added.
Rajib Mukherjee, an Army Intelligence Officer said that they got a tip-off about the gang engaged in smuggling of snake venom. “Accordingly, we chalked out plans and made a contact with them as buyer. For the last three days, we kept a constant effort to finalize the deal. Finally, a time was fixed and the gang members came to sell the venom. We then arrested from Kapa More in Kanchrapara,” Mr Mukherjee said.
He also said the gang was active in Ranaghat and they hailed for selling the venom from Ranaghat. The seized item was King Cobra’s venom, he said.
Feature Image by Debabrata Malakar
