Dhanbad (Jharkhand), Dec 9 (PTI) The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has seized 60 live turtles and arrested two persons from Rishikesh-Howrah Doon Express in Jharkhand's Dhanbad station on Tuesday, officials
said.
Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of RPF's Special Task Force and Crime Intelligence Branch conducted a search in the general compartment and rescued the turtles of the Indian flapshell species, RPF Dhanbad Sub-Inspector Arvind Kumar Ram told PTI.
"Two persons, identified as Ramdas alias Hemendra Prasad Das (50) from West Bengal and Himanshu Baidya (50) from Uttar Pradesh, were nabbed," the officer added.
The accused claimed that the turtles were being taken from Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh to Howrah.
The seized turtles were handed over to the Dhanbad divisional forest officials.
The officer said that this was the third time in two months when RPF rescued turtles from trains at Dhanbad railway station. Earlier, on November 7, 78 turtles were recovered, while 35 turtles were seized on December 3. PTI CORR ANB ACD
