BSF recovers snake venom worth Rs 100 crore, 3 held

Kolkata: The Border Security Force (BSF) on Tuesday recovered snake venom worth nearly Rs 100 crore from the possession of three persons who were later arrested by the police after interrogation.

The accused have been identified as Narayan Das (26), a resident of Madhaymgram in North 24 Parganas, Debojyoti Bose (43) from Moor Avenue and Buddhadev Khanra (40) resident of Vijoygarh under Jadavpur police station. Three jars recovered from the accused which were full of snake venom.

Police have started a probe in this regard. A senior police officer said that in the recent past, there had been multiple cases of snake venom recovery from North Bengal. Police suspect that a major racket has been operational in some districts. All the earlier cases were handed over to the CID.

Police were investigating if the accused were a part of any inter-state racket that has been operating from the state. Police were also investigating if the incident had any connection with the earlier incidents where some other persons were arrested on the charges of smuggling snake venom.

It may be mentioned here that in May, two such rackets were busted by the police from North Bengal. Police are investigating if the accused were from the same gang.

The Forest Department had recovered two jars of snake venom from South Dinajpur district on May 24 this year. One person has been arrested in this connection.

During that time, two jars were recovered the cost of which in international market was approximately Rs 12 crore.

In another incident which took place in the same month the BSF officers seized snake venom worth Rs 1 crore from a private bus at Malda's Gazol.