(IN) Kolkata zoo:Marmoset trail has more sting in the tail

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The Times of India, Kolkata Wednesday, September 2, 2009

 

Monkey thief changed looks, but neighbours turned him in

 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

 

Kolkata: Soon after giving cops the slip on Monday, Raj Saikia the prime accused

in the marmoset theft case had fled to his Chhattisgarh residence and tried to

change his appearance to dodge the police.

He went to a salon near his rented home in Sarora and changed his hairstyle. But

some of his neighbours helped Kolkata Police and he was finally rounded up again

late on Monday. Saikia had escaped while he was being brought to Kolkata on a

train.

After grilling, Saikia reportedly confessed that since the time he was nabbed,

he had been planning to flee. On Sunday evening, while he was in custody of

Kolkata Police, he had complained of stomach upset . He continued with the show

and went to the toilet more than three times soon after they boarded the train

in Bilaspur.

The entire police team was very tired and Saikia had, meanwhile, managed to

convince his guards that he would not try to flee. Saikia has a quality to

convince people within a few hours, said an investigator. As he was frequenting

the toilet, his guards forgot to tighten his handcuffs . Around 4.45 am on

Monday, when the train arrived at Jharsuguda Road station, the guards had dozed

off. Saikia did not waste time and managed to free himself of the handcuffs and

got off the train.

Saikia fled towards the nearest national highway at once. Just outside the

station, he had asked some people the way to the highway, which helped police

confirm that he had got off the train in Jharsuguda.

At a roadside eatery between Jharsuguda and Belpahar, Saikia managed to convince

a trucker that he had lost his belongings and he reached near Durg in

Chhattisgarh on his truck. He had no other way as he had no money on him, said

Jawed Shamim, joint commissioner of police (HQ). Soon after he escaped from

Jharsuguda, a Kolkata Police team left for Chhattisgarh by road and meanwhile,

Orissa Police confirmed that Saikia had boarded a truck that was headed for

Raipur.

In the meantime, Kolkata Police had traced the call records of Saikias wife and

his other relatives and friends. They found out that Saikia had called one of

his friends near Durg and had asked him to collect his wife Rekhas ATM card.

Police followed this friend and finally , Saikia was intercepted near the ATM

counter where he was waiting to withdraw money.

Our team is likely to reach the city late Tuesday or early Wednesday , said

Shamim.

 

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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/monkey-trail-has-more-sting-in-the-tail/510606\

/

 

Monkey trail has more sting in the tail

Madhuparna Das Wednesday, Sep 02, 2009 at 0541 hrs Kolkata:

 

With the theft of eight marmosets from the Alipore zoo, illegal trade of exotic

animals in West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka and Maharashtra has come to the fore as

a huge profit-making business.

 

 

Tracing the links of Rajesh Saikia alias Raj, arrested for stealing the

marmosets, sleuths of the Detective Department of the Kolkata Police got

information about around 15 dealers, who traded in various pet animals in open

market and were also secretly involved in illegal trade of exotic animals.

 

 

�Following the monkey theft case, we picked up around 15 such animal dealers.

Most of them are involved in the illegal trade of exotic animals, including

monkeys, birds, snakes and rare turtles,� said a senior DD official.

 

 

�Alipore is the main customer base in the city. Many big industrialists flaunt

such rarities by keeping exotic animals in their homes,� he added.

 

 

Atanu Raha, state principal chief conservator of wildlife, said: �Exotic

animals are mostly used as pets. There is a huge market for marmosets. Most of

the exotic animals do not come under the Wildlife Protection Act as these are

not rare.�

 

�For trade in exotic animals, exporters and importers must have a permission

under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora

and Fauna. The buyer of exotic animals must have the required certificate and

all the documents from where he purchased it. There are several places in the

country, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Pune, where exotic animals are

kept as pets,� added Raha.

 

 

Tentacles of Saikia

Saikia, who owns a breeding firm in Durg, has been residing at a rented house in

Kudeswar in Durg for the last eight months and was working as a labourer at a

local plastic bag manufacturing company.

 

 

He used to work at a big shop dealing with exotic animals in Mumbai before he

joined the racket involved in the illegal trade of exotic animals. He was first

arrested in 2007 by the Lonavala police for stealing seven Macaws and a couple

of Victorian pigeons from the private park of Mr Yogi in Lonavala.

 

 

At the same time, another trader in exotic animals Sujai Das alias Bubai, a

resident of Amarpally in Dum Dum, purchased a couple of Macaws and Victorian

Pigeons worth Rs 2 lakh from a South Indian.

 

 

�Bubai later sold them off to a customer in Bangalore. But after a few months,

he was arrested by the Lonavala police and taken to Pune jail where he met

Saikia and came to know that those animals were stolen by him,� said an

official of the DD.

 

 

Bubai reportedly has a shop at his residence for selling various kinds of pet

animals, including birds, monkeys and dogs.

 

 

�After the marmosets were stolen from the zoo, we picked up Bubai on

suspicion. We also had information that he was once arrested in an exotic animal

trade case two years ago. However, during interrogation nothing significant

emerged and we released him,� said Jawed Shamim, Joint Commissioner of Kolkata

Police.

 

 

�After tracing Bubai�s cellphone, we learnt that he was always in touch with

Saikia, who visited the city 4-5 times before stealing the marmosets from the

zoo. Bubai used to work as his counterpart in the city. We are looking for the

other links Rajesh has in the city,� said a DD official.

 

 

Sources said besides Rajesh and Bubai, a few more persons are also involved in

the monkey theft. According to an official of the criminal branch of

Chhattisgarh Police, Saikia, with links in Pune, Mumbai and Northeast, is the

part of a bigger racket involved in illegal trade of exotic animals.

 

 

Guwahati SP P C Saloi said, �He has many relatives in Guwahati and may have

links with operators in the trade here.�

 

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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090902/jsp/calcutta/story_11438123.jsp

 

Lost-and-found muddle of the marmoset man

- Sleuths piece together how handcuffed accused caught four cops napping and how

he was traced

A STAFF REPORTER

 

 

Marmoset theft accused Raj Saikia could slip out of the Down Ahmedabad Express

as all four of his minders � an inspector, a sub-inspector and two constables

� were asleep in the air-conditioned comfort of the two-tier coach, the city

police bosses have confirmed.

 

Raj, rearrested hours later by the same cop team in Chhattisgarh�s Durg, was

in cuffs � one end of which was locked to his berth chain � but he

apparently had no problem slipping them off.

 

Jawed Shamim, the joint commissioner of police (headquarters), said there might

be some problems with the handcuffs, that allowed Raj to make a monkey of his

men. �But then we use cuffs of the same make when accused are brought by

train,� he added.

 

�Once out on Jharsuguda platform in Orissa, around 4.45am on Monday, he asked

some people the way to the nearest motorable road and then headed for a

barber�s where he had a quick haircut,� said a source privy to the

reconstruction of events since Raj�s disappearance.

 

Constable Shamsher Khan, who was sharing a berth with Raj, woke up while the

train was still at Jharsuguda station and was shocked to see the handcuffs

dangling from the berth chain. The cops � Khan, inspector Debashis Sarkar,

sub-inspector Prasenjit Bhattacharya and constable D.G. Mahato � rushed out

but the accused was nowhere to be seen.

 

Sleuths learnt that Raj had walked to the next railway station and hopped on to

a truck on his way to Durg via Raipur. �We had a hunch that Raj would return

to his wife Rekha and two-and-a-half-month-old daughter in Durg. So our men got

in touch with Raj�s landlord in Durg, a Bengali youth, and he assured us of

help,� said an officer of the detective department. The Durg police, too, were

alerted.

 

The four-member city police team left for Durg in a car and reached the town

around 5pm. On the way the officers learnt from their Durg counterparts, who had

tapped Rekha�s cellphone, that Raj had called one of his friends and told him

that he was in need of cash.

 

�The landlord and his men as well as Durg police had fanned out in search of

Raj. Our men, too, joined them. He was finally spotted entering an ATM and

arrested,� the officer said.

 

Raj was brought to Calcutta late on Tuesday, this time guarded by 11 men from

the detective department.

 

Sujoy Das, also arrested for the marmoset theft, was on Monday grilled by a team

from the Nandankan zoo in connection with the theft of a pair of macaws in July

2009.

 

 

 

 

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Thank you for your compassion !

With best regards,

Debasis Chakrabarti

Compassionate Crusaders Trust

http://www.animalcrusaders.org