4 arrested, Rs 200 cr snake venom seized

Four smugglers with forest officials

HT, 15 October 2016, DARJEELING: The forest department has arrested four people from a hotel in Siliguri with snake venom having a market value of Rs 200 crore. The venom in five jars was allegedly manufactured in France and had been routed in through Bangladesh.

The arrests were made on Friday night with forest department officials from Belokabo Range in Jalpaiguri district posing as buyers from Bhutan. The team was led by range officer Sanjay Dutta.

“Four persons were arrested and five bullet-proof containers of snake venom worth Rs 200 crore were seized. We also recovered some ammunition and one revolver,” said Dutta.

The arrested include Sujoy Kumar Das, Bipul Sarkar, Pintu Banerjee and Amal Nubiya. While Das, Sarkar and Banerjee are residents of South Dinajpur district, Nubiya hails from Chanchal in Malda district.

A firearm, four live cartridges, a booklet (which claims that the venom is from France) and a vehicle have also been seized by the forest department. “The four accused have been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act and produced in Jalpaiguri court on Saturday,” said PR Pradhan, divisional forest officer, Bikanthapur Range.

According to sources, Dutta received a tip-off that the consignment would be arriving from France to Balurghat in South Dinajpur via Bangladesh on September 20. The Range officer then started keeping vigilance. Information was received that the smuggling ring had taken the venom to Salt Lake in Kolkata. Though an attempt was made to apprehend them, the perpetrators managed to give the forest department the slip. Following this the smugglers remained untraceable.

Dutta worked relentlessly to smoke out the racketeers. Finally two days ago he received information that they were holed up in a hotel in Siliguri. Posing as buyers from Bhutan, Dutta and his team managed to establish contact with the smugglers.

A deal was struck. Initially videos of the goods were shown to the ranger and his associate (posing as buyers). When the smugglers were convinced that they were buyers, the jars were brought out. Immediately the four were arrested and the venom was seized.

“It is a great achievement for the forest department. We want to take the four in remand for further investigation,” said Dutta.

His efforts have been lauded by Binay Krishna Burman, minister in charge of the forest department, Government of West Bengal. “This is a success of the forest department and also the fruit of the relentless and sincere efforts of Sanjay Dutta and his team. In the past also Dutta has shown great sincerity through similar achievements,” said Burman.