Four inter-state wildlife traffickers arrested with rare red sand boa

Central Chronicle News
Raipur, Mar 19: Raipur Police Cyber Cell on Friday arrested four inter-state wildlife traffickers and seized from them a rare red sand boa. All the arrested accused are natives of Kerala and had been residing in a rented house near Shiv Chowk in Old Rajendra Nagar locality posing as distempering workers. Police have since handed over the arrested four and the seized snake to the officials of the Forest Department.
According to police, Raipur Police Cyber Cell on Friday got information about four wildlife traffickers residing somewhere in Old Rajendra Nagar locality and attempting to illegally sell a red sand boa. Their presence in the city was revealed through police’s technical expertise after the arrested four made telephonic contacts with the prospective buyers for this rare snake.
The information was immediately shared with DIG & SSP Raipur Ajay Yadav who then directed the Cyber Cell to immediately trace the exact location of the suspected traffickers and arrest them red-handed. Acting on his directive, Cyber Cell sleuths launched a hectic search for the particular house where these traffickers were staying and ultimately in the afternoon managed to pinpoint the house. Immediately a raid was conducted at the house and all four occupants were taken into custody. Further search of the house led to recovery of the rare snake kept hidden in a big drum.
All four of them were then brought to the police station where they were identified as Kiran RP and Raj Kiran, both residents of Kollam district in Kerala and Rinu B and Saanil, both residents of Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. In their confession, they told police of having procured the rare snake from a gang of wildlife traffickers operating from Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh for Rs 10 lakh and were intending to sell the rare snake for Rs 30 lakh which actually is worth crores in international market.