WB: Snake poison worth 100 cr recovered, 6 arrested

Chife Wild Life Warden of West Bengal Ajad Zaidi told IBNS, "We suspect that the poisons are of Cobra snake and the market price of the venom is 100 crore rupees approximately."

According to the forest department reports, six men were coming from Siliguri by three motorcycles and the forest guards stopped them and the poisons were recovered.

After primary interrogation the arrested persons were handed over to the police.

"After searching them, the forest guards recovered three bulletproof containers of Belgium-glass. After opening those, the snake poisons were found in liquid, processed and crystal state. We found "Made in France" stickers on the containers," the forest ranger of Baikunthapur range Sanjay Dutta told IBNS.

"The traffickers said that they were going to deliver the containers to an address in Bhutan. According to their statements, the snake poisons were entered into India from Bangladesh via Balurghat in South Dinajpur district of West Bengal," Dutta said.

The forest department is sending some samples of the venom to the Zoological Survey of India & Wild Life Institute of India for tests.

West Bengal forest minister Binay Barman told IBNS, "The venom will be sent for forensic test."

The six arrested were produced to the Jalpaiguri Court on Saturday and were sent to the police custody till Monday.

Police seized three motorcycles and one fake press card from them and have started investigation into the case.

"An international racket is involved in this snake poison trafficking, we are interrogating the six to know about the leaders of the racket," the Superintended of Police of Jalpaiguri district Akash Megharia. 

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)