Pune: Two Animal Smugglers Arrested With 279 African Turtles, 1,207 Iguana Lizards, 230 Betta Fish
Mubarak Ansari
Pune, 26th May 2021: The sleuths from the Government Railway Police (GRP) have arrested two men for smuggling 279 African spurred turtles and sulcata turtles, 1,207 Iguana lizards, and 230 Betta fish through Chennai Express.
Following a tip-off that unlicensed goods, animals, and other species were being smuggled from trains on various routes, Superintendent of Police (GRP Pune) Sadanand Waise Patil directed Local Crime Branch (LCB) Inspector Maula Syed to investigate the matter. Accordingly, Inspector Syed formed four different teams, and patrolling was intensified in trains passing through Pune in the last 10 days.
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On May 25, a team found Tarun Kumar Mohan (26) and Srinivasan Kamal (20), both residents of Tamil Nadu, travelling in A-1 coach of the Chennai-LTT Express between Pune and Lonavala. They had four travel bags and two sacks. They worked as fish transporters.
“Our team became suspicious and checked the bags and discovered turtles, lizards, and fish. When questioned, the duo failed to show any transport license or documents. They were taken into custody. With the help of forest officials, all the 279 turtles, 1,207 lizards, and 230 fish have been taken to the Rescue Charitable Trust at Chandni Chowk for identification and counting. Both the persons have been handed over to the Customs Department for further action,” Inspector Syed said.
The action was taken under the guidance of SP Sadanand Waise Patil, Additional SP Kavita Nerkar, and LCB Police Inspector Maula Syed. The team included Assistant Inspector Antarkar, ASI Sunil Bhokare, and Jagdesh Sawant, and police personnel Sunil Kadam, Suhas Malwadkar, Dinesh Bornare, Firoz Shaikh, Amardeep Salunke, Imtiyaz Awti, Nilesh Bidkar, Sandip Pawar, Vikram Madhe, Madhav Kendre, and Baby Thorat.
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