Acting on a tip-off, the Corporation officials along with the Food Safety officials, Railway police and Railway Food Safety officials inspected the parcels that came on Jaipur Express train which reached Chennai Central from Rajasthan on Tuesday morning. “When we checked the consignment at Chennai Central, we found 21 suspicious cartons. As foul smell emanated from the cartons, the boxes were opened. They contained mutton, which was rotten and unhygienic,” a Corporation official said.

According to the official, the smuggled meat weighed nearly 1,750 kg. “As the meat was unfit for consumption, we have destroyed it at a dump yard,” the official added.

The Corporation officials have informed the commercial section of the Southern Railway about the seizure, following which Railway officials are trying to establish the identity of the sender.

Meanwhile, Food Safety Department officials have seized 450 kg of rotten calf meat from a house in Neruppu Medu in Saidapet early on Tuesday. “A person named Ilankali was running an unauthorised slaughterhouse inside his house and was cutting beef in an unhygienic way. When the raid was conducted, he had 450 kg of rotten beef in his house,” an official noted.

Interestingly, the Food Safety officials received the information about the unauthorised slaughterhouse through a WhatsApp message from a disgruntled resident of the locality. 

“The person had been letting the blood and other waste of slaughtered animals through the sewage line. It is crime to operate unauthorised slaughterhouses in the city, as animals should only be slaughtered at two slaughterhouses (Pulianthope and Saidapet) that civic body runs. Proper police complaint will be lodged soon,” the official added.

In another incident in the previous week, the civic officials had seized 1.5 tonne of rotten beef and pork stored at a house in Chintadripet.