The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau has busted an animal organ trafficking ring in Kolkata. Wildlife body parts were being sold under the guise of selling Tantra items! Two vendors have been arrested from Barabazar area after Wildlife Crime Control Bureau officials visited the shop posing as buyers. The accused have been identified as Bindeshwari Sau and Mohan Gupta.
At least 60 Monitor lizards’ penises, 10 wild boar teeth, and 250 sea fans (Gorgonia ventalina) have been confiscated. Tantrics (occult) practitioners use sea fan to perform black magic, the market value of which is more than lakhs of rupees.
Police suspects that there is an international gang behind this racket. Where are these being sourced from? The Forest Department is probing the same by interrogating the arrested persons.
At least 60 Monitor lizards’ penises, 10 wild boar teeth, and 250 sea fans (Gorgonia ventalina) have been confiscated. Tantrics (occult) practitioners use sea fan to perform black magic, the market value of which is more than lakhs of rupees.
Police suspects that there is an international gang behind this racket. Where are these being sourced from? The Forest Department is probing the same by interrogating the arrested persons.
At least 60 Monitor lizards’ penises, 10 wild boar teeth, and 250 sea fans (Gorgonia ventalina) have been confiscated. Tantrics (occult) practitioners use sea fan to perform black magic, the market value of which is more than lakhs of rupees.
Police suspects that there is an international gang behind this racket. Where are these being sourced from? The Forest Department is probing the same by interrogating the arrested persons.
How the trafficking ring was busted?
The shop from which the items were seized is located in Kolkata’s Barabazar area. Apparently, it looks like a butcher’s shop and hence no one suspected anything.
The Wildlife Crime Suppression Unit received information from a special source that wildlife organ trafficking was going on behind the scenes in that butcher’s shop. Learning about this, the local police got in touch with the state wildlife crime prevention cell. Officials planned to catch the culprits red-handed.
On Tuesday, two officials first went to the store disguised as buyers and negotiated with the sellers. The officials told the shopkeeper that they would come back the following day to collect the items. The officials also gave some advance money to the sellers so that they do not grow suspicious. The two officials reached the shop again on Wednesday afternoon at the designated time, while their team was waiting outside. The seller was about to hand over the wildlife organs to the buyer when they were caught red handed. The confiscated items included 60 Monitor lizards’ penises, 10 wild boar teeth, and 250 sea fans.
Confiscated organs belong to endangered species, used to perform Black Magic
Monitor lizards are endangered. It is included in Schedule-1 of the Wildlife Conservation Act. Sea fan is an animal of the coral family. This marine animal is also included in Schedule-1. Both are used in Tantra practices.
A forest department official said that Sea Fan is referred to as “Indrajaal” by Tantrics. These are used by Tantrics to perform black magic. To the naked eye, they appear like branches of a tree. The sellers used to mix sea fans with herbs.