Linkman of carcass meat racket arrested, raids continue

Kolkata, May 4 (IANS) A day after police arrested the kingpin of a carcass meat selling racket in the city, another linkman of the racket was arrested from the Kolkata airport area, police said on Friday.

Following the arrest of the kingpin of a carcass meat selling racket in the city, police apprehended another person from the city airport area for allegedly working as a linkman between the racket and buyers, a senior official said on Friday.

"A person named Sikandar Ali was arrested from the airport area in Dumdum on Thursday night. The prima facie evidence shows that he worked as a linkman in this case," Diamond Harbour Superintendent of Police Koteshwar Rao told IANS.

"The arrested persons are being interrogated to determine their involvements in the racket. The raids by the Special Investigating Team are going on in Kolkata and the adjoining districts," he said.

The police had last week busted a racket involved in processing the flesh of carcasses collected from dumping grounds in and adjoining suburbs and selling it to local restaurants and departmental stores and seized huge quantity of rotten meat from a city cold storage.

Police has arrested 12 people so far including the kingpin Biswanath Garai (52), who also owned the cold storage in north Kolkata's Narkeldanga.

Meanwhile, officials of Kolkata Municipal Corporations and district municipalities conducted fresh raids in local restaurants and eateries and sent food samples for testing.

Two restaurants in Dunlop in city's northern fringes were sealed after large quantity of rotten chicken, fish items were seized from there.

Political parties including a local committee of Congress staged demonstrations in front of Kolkata Corporation demanding measures to ensure food safety.