Tortoise racket busted in Bihar

Patna, Nov 26 (UNI) An inter-state tortoise smuggling racket was busted and 38 tortoises recovered from a Farakka Express compartment at the Patna railway station.

Police today said acting on a tip off, a raid was conducted at the Farakka Express yesterday and tortoises were recovered during the search operation.

One Sabita Devi was arrested in this connection, police said.

During interrogation, she disclosed that she had boarded the train with a consignment at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and was scheduled to hand over the tortoises to a person at Malda railway station in West Bengal.

Police said, ''When queried, she feigned ignorance about the identity of the person, who was supposed to receive the consignment from her at Malda. A diary was recovered from her possession, including a few telephone numbers, and the same had been transferred to West Bengal police for investigation to nab other members of the gang involved in tortoise smuggling,'' police added.

Meanwhile, all tortoises had been handed over to forest department officials and it would be kept at Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, Patna.

The forest department, which had lodged a case with concerned police station in this connection, would investigate the case from every possible angle to bring the culprits to the book, sources said.

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