Chandigarh, Sep 4 (Inditop.com) A shopkeeper has been arrested here for illegally keeping rare species of turtles and selling them, police said Friday.
Monu Kumar, owner of a meat shop in Sector 37 here, was arrested late Thursday evening and 15 turtles of three rare species and eight shells were recovered from his possession.
“We got a tip-off from an NGO PFA (People for Animals) about this illegal trade. We laid a trap and sent an official of PFA as a decoy customer to the shop to strike a deal. Monu was caught red-handed,” a police officer said.
“We have registered a case and started our investigation. We hope to make more arrests after the interrogation of the accused,” he said.
Saurabh Gupta, an official of PFA from Delhi who helped Chandigarh Police in this case, said: “We had busted a similar racket of illegal trading of turtles in Delhi a few weeks back. The kingpin of that racket Shabir told us about his network in various other states and named this shopkeeper of Chandigarh.”
The turtles and shells recovered are usually found in south Indian states near sea shores.
