Siliguri man held with jumbo tusks

SNS | Siliguri | 20 March, 2016: Acting on a tip off the 41 battalion of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Kurseong Forest Division (KFD) jointly arrested one person and recovered two elephant tusks from his possession near Bagdogra in Siliguri, official sources said today. The SSB and KFD officials arrested a person near a tea garden, around three km away from Bagdogra, on Friday.  

“The person was on a motorcycle. We intercepted the bike and recovered two elephant tusks from a bag. The person has been arrested and the tusks have been handed over to the forest department," said, a senior SSB official Mr D K Singh, associated with 41 Battalion.

“He said there is one local person associated with the gang and his name is Rohit Toppo, he said Rohit's father is a former army man, he also talked about another person of North Dinajpur district and his name is Ramesh. They are involved in the smuggling racket of wildlife articles," Mr Singh added.

Both the men , however, fled, sources said. The length of one tusk is 12 inch and width is seven inch while another is four inch long and its width is five inch. The arrested personconfessed that he works as a mason at Bengdubi Army Cantonment. The KFD divisional forest officer Suratna Sherpa has said there was a possibility that the racket smuggles the wildlife articles to the neighbouring countries.