Four arrested for smuggling snake venom from Gujarat

India: The Local Crime Branch, Raigad, has arrested four people for allegedly smuggling 850 ml snake venom from Gujarat to Maharashtra.

Two of the men, Rajaram Ramsomaru Jaiswar (46), who worked with a Customs clearing agent in Mumbai, and Udaynath Ramjeet Jaiswar (37), who did temporary jobs, were arrested from Mandwa jetty on Tuesday.

“Both are residents of Malad, but are originally from Gujarat. Our sources provided us information about the duo and their physical description. We laid a trap at the jetty and were keeping an eye on every passenger alighting from the ferry. When we identified the accused, we caught them and seized a bottle of 850 ml liquid, which they confessed to be snake venom,” senior police inspector Jamil Shaikh from Raigad Local Crime Branch said.

Upon further interrogation, they revealed that two men from Vapi in Gujarat had supplied the venom to them, and they had brought it to Mandwa in search of a prospective customer. A police team left for Vapi on Tuesday night and arrested the other two men, Devilal Ramprasad Joshi (36) and Santoshkumar Surendraprasad Singh (35).

“We have learned that the accused from Gujarat had received the venom from a man in Uttar Pradesh. We will arrest him soon to identify the source of the venom,” Mr. Shaikh said.

According to the police,the seized venom is used by licensed pharmaceutical companies to prepare medicines. The accused had no authority, permission or licence to deal in snake venom. A case has been registered against them with the Mandwa coastal police, under sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Poison Act, 1919. The accused have been remanded in police custody till October 29.

(Source: The Hindu)