Prime accused held in the city: Marmoset theft at Kolkata zoo

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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/prime-accused-held/508856/0

Prime accused held

Express News Service Posted: Sunday , Aug 30, 2009 at 0207 hrs Kolkata:

 

With the arrest of the prime accused in the theft of marmosets — Sujoy Das alias

Bubai — from Aprapally in Dum Dum on Saturday evening, the police are now

searching for other accused who helped him commit the crime.

 

 

 

Eight marmosets, who had gone missing from Alipore Zoo on August 8, were found

late on Friday night at Durg in Chhattisgarh. A team of Kolkata police left for

Durg on Friday night, while another team, which included an officer and two

keepers from the zoo, left Saturday morning to bring back the marmosets.

 

 

Durg SP Dipanshu Kabra said they had received a tip-off about a man trying to

sell some exotic monkeys. “We sent our man as an interested buyer and trapped

Rajesh Saikia, who was trying to sell the marmosets,” said Kabra. Saikia was

produced in the Durg court on Saturday and has been granted a transit remand.

 

 

Saikia allegedly claimed that Bubai had given him the marmosets and asked him to

keep them in his custody. He had kept them at his home where one of the younger

ones had died, whose body he allegedly buried in his backyard.

 

Police said Saikia, originally from Guwahati, was now settled in Raipur. He was

reported to have been arrested before and lodged in a Pune jail for selling

exotic macaws.

 

 

“We believe that he met Bubai in Pune jail and they were both involved in the

racket of selling exotic species,” said a Chhattisgarh police officer.

 

 

Javed Shamim, Joint commissioner (HQ), said they did not suspect an organised

racket behind the theft. “We believe this incident and the earlier one where

miscreants tried to enter the zoo are related. Since they were unsuccessful at

that time, they decided to try again,” said Shamim.

 

 

“Usually in case of a racket, the animals are never left with a middleman and

there are always buyers lined up before such operations. But the way these

accused have been trying to sell off the animals shows no big organised racket

was behind it,” he added. Shamim said the lax in security made it easy for the

miscreants to sneak in and steal the animals.

 

 

The Chhattisgarh Police are now claiming the reward their Kolkata counterparts

have announced on the recovery of monkeys. “We told the Kolkata police that our

boys deserve the amount. They have agreed and we hope our boys get the prize

money soon,” said Kabra.

 

 

Raju Das, Alipore Zoo director, said the animals would be quarantined for 15

days after they are brought back. “We do not know how they were kept or if they

have contacted any disease. So, they will be quarantined for 15 days before

being displayed in the zoo,” said Raju.

 

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090830/jsp/bengal/story_11427727.jsp

 

Calcutta catch in zoo theft

OUR BUREAU

Aug. 29: Police today arrested a man who trades in rare animals at Nagerbazar on

the suspicion that he had helped steal eight Common Marmosets from Alipore zoo.

 

The arrest of Sujoy Das alias Bubai Bangali came a day after Chhattisgarh police

found seven of the eight monkeys alive in Durg and arrested Raj Saikia alias

Rajesh, who named Sujoy as one of his associates.

 

An inter-state gang led by Raj, who is from Guwahati, had been instrumental in

stealing the marmosets, the police believe.

 

Chhattisgarh police caught Raj, who is in his early thirties, after an officer

posed as a customer to buy the monkeys. The police had specific information that

Raj was looking for buyers.

 

On August 9, eight Common Marmosets of Brazilian origin were stolen from the

zoo. The rare monkeys, the size of large rats, are worth around Rs 1 lakh each

in the illicit wildlife market.

 

“Raj has already named a few persons from Calcutta and we are working on it. It

appears he got acquainted with some people from the city when they were lodged

in the same jail in Pune,” said Jawed Shamim, DIG (headquarters). “This is the

work of an inter-state gang that was selling rare animals for a long time. We

hope to tie up the Calcutta end of the gang soon.”

 

Preliminary investigations have revealed that Raj was arrested earlier in Pune

for selling rare macaws. He also has cases against him in Mumbai.

 

“We planned a trap,” Deepanshu Kabra, Durg superintendent of police, said. “A

member of our squad posed as a buyer and a deal was finalised at Rs 5 lakh for

each monkey. Raj was asked to come to Khursipar, on the outskirts of Bhilai, to

collect the cash on Friday evening.”

 

He appeared with another person, Ashoke Karai, and was arrested.

 

Sources said Raj named Bubai (or Sujoy) as a person dealing with rare animals in

Calcutta. Shamim said: “We have checked his (Sujoy’s) phone conversations. It’s

clear he spoke to Raj several times before the theft.”

 

 

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/kolkata-/One-more-held-in-monkey-th\

eft-case/articleshow/4949851.cms

One more held in monkey theft case

TNN 30 August 2009, 04:33am IST

 

KOLKATA: A day after seven of the eight common marmosets stolen from Alipore zoo

were rescued from a house in Chhattisgarh's Durg, Kolkata Police on

Saturday said they were expecting the monkeys to arrive in Kolkata by Monday.

The city police also arrested a man called Sujoy Das alias Bubai from Dum Dum on

suspicion of being involved in the racket.

 

Das is said to be an aide of Raj Saikia, who was arrested in Chhattisgarh on

Friday in connection with the theft case. The city cops are preparing to bring

Saikia to the city on transit remand for interrogation.

 

" One team left for Chhattisgarh by flight at 5.30 am while another went by

train. We are expecting the marmosets to be brought back to Kolkata by Monday.

We are interrogating several persons here and have also found some local links,

which we are probing, " said Jawed Shamim, joint commissioner of police

(headquarters).

 

Shamim said Chhattisgarh Police got information that one person was trying to

sell some monkeys. Acting on this tip-off, they nabbed Saikia for keeping the

marmosets. Police also said Saikia, a native of Assam, was an animal thief. He

was arrested in Pune in 2006 for allegedly having a role in the theft of macaws.

He also lived in Mumbai for some time and was currently staying in Chhattisgarh.

 

Police are trying to find out how exactly the marmosets was stolen. " We will

find out whether Raj came to Kolkata to steal the marmosets or got delivery of

the marmosets from his local contacts here. The manner in which the marmosets

were kept in the Durg house for so many days and the way the gang was still

searching for prospective buyers suggested that it was probably not a very

well-organized racket, " Shamim said.

 

The monkey thieves did not know how much the marmosets could fetch in the

market, police said. " Each of them has a price tag of $1,700 (Rs 85,000), but

the accused were demanding only Rs 35 lakh for the entire bunch of seven, "

Shamim said.

 

Police also suspect that the same group had made a similar attempt at Alipore

zoo in March. " Whether the local sources have links with the zoo is a matter of

investigation, " he added.

 

The city cops are trying to find out how frequently Saikia contacted his sources

in Kolkata. They also feel that the racket may have spread to Bangladesh besides

having an inter-state connection. " It could be possible that he (Saikia)

developed his contacts while he was in jail previously. We are exploring all

angles, " a police officer said.

 

The marmosets were stolen from Alipore zoo on August 9. The then zoo director

was later suspended.

 

 

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Thank you for your compassion !

With best regards,

Debasis Chakrabarti

Compassionate Crusaders Trust

http://www.animalcrusaders.org