Animal skins, bones found at 'tantrik' home in West Bengal

KOLKATA: The forest department on Wednesday conducted a raid on the house of a so-called tantrik at Dum Dum's Nagerbazar and seized carcasses, body parts and skins of rare wild animals, apart from several human skulls and bones.
Three persons, including the father of the "tantrik" Sourav Chowdhury, were arrested on Thursday. Chowdhury, however, is still at large. Locals claimed he is an employee of South Dum Dum Municipality.

Police suspect that on the pretext of conducting black magic rituals, Chowdhury and his team might have been involved in a wildlife smuggling racket.
According to police sources, acting on a tip-off, around 10.30pm on Wednesday, a state forest department team, accompanied by cops from Nagerbazar police station, conducted the raid on Chowdhury's house off Private Road at Ambagan and recovered the body parts of rare wild animals. "White deer skin, deer horns, tiger teeth, and several human skulls and bones were seized during the raid," said Bhaskar Jyoti Paul, range officer, Barasat SF range.

Police said three arrested persons were identified as Sorav's father Rakhal Chowdhury, and his two associates, Dulal Adhikari and Arijit Gupta. Police and forest department sources said the three would be questioned to find out whether they are a part of any wildlife articles smuggling racket. They would be produced before a Barrackpore court on Friday.
Subir Kr Roy, ACP, Dum Dum, said: "The man's wife had initially lodged a complaint of dowry torture against her husband. Later, she alleged that he had been stealing and stockpiling wildlife articles. The articles seized from the house and those arrested were handed over to the forest department."