PONDA
The police had arrested a gang of seven persons last Wednesday for allegedly possessing one litre liquid, suspected to be snake venom, valued at Rs 2 crore. On Saturday night, Maharashtra Police entered Goa from Karnataka to nab the prime accused person. The five-member police team on Sunday morning took assistance of their counterparts in Ponda. They also spoke to Kavalem Sarpanch Rajesh Kavalekar over the phone to know the locality of a house number. Speaking to The Goan, Kavalekar admitted that police were inquiring about one house number from his panchayat jurisdiction. The Maharashtra Police told The Goan that the six suspects from Kolhapur and their accomplice from Hukkeri-Belagavi in Karnataka have been arrested. “We got the leads from the suspect from Belagavi that there is involvement of a Goan youth. We have collected all his call details,” police said. They said their investigation so far revealed that the venom was extracted from snakes found in the jungles of the Western Ghats in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. “This prime accused, who supplies the venom, is a snake catcher. He has links with persons trading in snake venom,” he said.
