20 tons of carcass meat seized in Kolkata, six arrested

The West Bengal Police has busted a racket selling carcass meat to restaurants and shops, and arrested six persons in this connection and seized nearly 20 tonnes of meat from a cold storage in Kolkata, a senior officer said on Thursday.

The seizure took place during a joint raid by the teams of state and city police in various markets and cold storages in the city and adjoining suburbs on Wednesday night.

"20 tonnes of rotten carcass meat were seized from a cold storage in Kolkata's Narkeldanga area (central Kolkata). Six persons including the kingpin have been arrested for allegedly storing the meat at a cold storage and selling it to different city restaurants and departmental stores," Koteswar Rao, Superintendent of Police (SP) Daimond Harbour police district told reporters here.

According to the officer, the racket used to collect carcass meat from different dumpyards in and around the city and store it in the cold storage they had taken on rent.

"The accused were produced in court and have been remanded to three days of police custody till Monday," Rao added.

According to the SP, meat collected from the dumpyards were kept in a deep freezer with added chemicals and packed before selling it in the market.

The issue first came to light after the police arrested two persons including a taxi driver last week for allegedly collecting carcass meat from a dumpyard in South 24 Pargana district's Budge Budge.

Interrogation revealed that the two accused were part of a rotten meat selling racket and were involved in supplying carcass meat from the graveyards to different city restaurants at a cheap rate.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) conducted raids on different eateries in east and central Kolkata including Sealdah, Rajabazar and collected samples of both fresh and cooked meat over the last one week.

"We are keeping in touch with the police. Raids will go on in the markets and eateries. We will take necessary action against the culprits," KMC Mayor in-Council (Health) Atin Ghosh said.

--IANS

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