Acting on a tip-off, Railway Protection Force personnel recovered 150 turtles from a sleeper class bogie of the North East Express at Uttar Pradesh's Deen Dayal Upadhyay junction and detained nine people in this connection.
The people detained had 21 big and small turtles in sacks and bags. The recovered turtles have been handed over to the forest department. Necessary action is being taken against the detained people.
On Sunday evening, RPF recovered the turtles from the S1 coach of the train as it entered the station. Nine people including five women have been detained by the RPF. During interrogation, it was revealed that all of them are the residents of Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
It was also revealed that the turtles were being taken from the Sangam coast of Prayagraj to Katihar in Bihar for being sold in villages there.
Sanjeev Kumar, RPF inspector at DDU Junction said that RPF escort team was coming from Kanpur to DDU Junction in North East Express when they found 21 sacks with turtles. The RPF police station in DDU Junction was informed about the incident. On reaching the DDU junction, the train was searched and the turtles were taken out.
( With inputs from ANI )
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