Three persons arrested for smuggling snake venom

Kolkata: Three persons were arrested from Barasat in a joint operation conducted by the Wild Life Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and the CID for allegedly trying to smuggle snake venom. The accused persons have been remanded to judicial custody on Tuesday.

According to the sources, the WCCB got a tip off that some smugglers would try to smuggle snake venom somewhere in North 24-Parganas. Based on the information, the WCCB informed the CID and sought assistance. Later, the sleuths came to know that three persons have got hold of a good volume of snake venom which might have come from Bangladesh. On Monday, CID officials got a tip off that some persons are trying to sell snake venom. The sleuths managed to get the phone number of one of the smugglers. Wasting no time a plan was made with the officials of the WCCB. According to the plan, a CID sleuth called up on that phone number as a prospected buyer of snake venom.

The CID official was asked to reach Moyna area in Barasat. The three smugglers identified as Amiya Das, Dipak Ray and Arup Biswas arrived there around 8 pm. When they started dealing, their teams surrounded them. During search and seizure procedure, the sleuths recovered two jars of snake venom in form of liquid and crystal. The case was later handed over to the Directorate of Forest, West Bengal for further proceedings.