Kingpin of carcass meat racket arrested; suspected aide also held

Kolkata: In a major development in the investigation of carcass meat case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Diamond Harbour Police district on Wednesday night claimed to have arrested the kingpin of the case from a hideout at Tentultala in Sonarpur, South 24-Parganas. The accused has been identified as Biswanath Ghorai, alias Bishu.

Later on Thursday night Kolkata Police detained Md. Eklakh from Ultadanga suspecting him to be an aide of Bishu.

He has been handed over to South 24-Parganas police.

Bishu was the owner of a cold-storage cum processing unit in Narkeldanga from where the meat was allegedly supplied to some hotels and restaurants in the city and its suburbs. His name cropped up after the police interrogated one Sunny Mallick who was arrested from Bihar in connection with the case.

Police sources informed that Bishu ran this business of carcass meat under the garb of fish business with which he was associated for more than 10 years. He was produced at Alipore Court on Thursday and was remanded to police custody till May 8.

The racket was unearthed by Budge Budge police after some residents of Subhas Udyan area caught one Raja Mullick, a casual worker of the local municipality and Vincent Simon, a taxi driver, while some meat and animal parts were being smuggled out in the vehicle.

In course of the investigation, the sleuths have conducted raids at a number of places including Rajabazar, Rajarhat, Tangra, Kankinara, Jagaddal, and some other places in the state. The police have already sealed a cold storage in Narkeldanga area and recovered huge quantities of such processed meat in packets. The stuff is presently undergoing forensic tests.

The sleuths are also not ruling out the possibility of international linkage in the case as they have learnt during the investigation that this processed meat in packets was supplied across the borders to Bangladesh and Nepal respectively. The processed stuff was mixed with fresh meat. "We have come across names of some of the linkmen who were responsible in the supply of the carcass meat beyond borders," an investigating officer said.

Meanwhile, continuing its drive against inferior quality of food including meat, the Health department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) conducted drives at New Market area. Samples were collected from a number of restaurants including a noted fast-food restaurant chain dealing with chicken items.

"We have found industrial ice and metallic turmeric in some shops. The stuff has been destroyed immediately as consumption of both is harmful to health," Member Mayor-in-Council (Health) Atin Ghosh who led the drive said. Another team from the civic body's food safety unit conducted a food drive at Rashmoni Bazar area in Beliaghata.

"The samples that have been collected will be sent for forensic examination," Ghosh maintained.

The Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has visited different eateries in the area under the jurisdiction of the civic body. A team led by Bhaskar Bhattacharjee, MMIC (Health, Family Welfare department), visited the eateries and checked the quality of meat used to prepare food.

Meanwhile, environmentalist Subhas Dutta has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with Calcutta High Court stating that most of the shops in the city are not registered. He had urged the court to instruct the administration for strongly implementing the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 for the sake of public health.