Family of four lived with 31 cobras, 41 Russell's vipers in Pune's Chakan flat

PUNE: A

snake venom

racket unspooled after the arrest of two men from a two-bedroom flat in

Sara City

in Kharabwadi in

Chakan

area on Tuesday.

The Chakan police who raided the flat found 31 cobras and 41 Russell's vipers in the apartment. Both snakes are poisonous, but the Russell's viper is the deadliest Indian snake.

The main suspect, Ranjeet Pandhirnath Kharaghe, 37, lived with his wife and two daughters aged two and four, and 72 poisonous snakes that were kept in a wooden box and in sacks in one of the two bedrooms which was locked. Kharaghe made sure the reptiles could not escape, police said.

Dhananjay Bedkute (30) the second person arrested is known as a sarpa mitra (friend of snakes) and rescues them when people seek his help.

Bedkute would catch poisonous snakes and hand them over to Kharaghe. "Both would extract venom from the snakes. More snake catchers may be involved," Girigosavi said.

Bedkute and Kharaghe were booked under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, Girigosavi added. Police handed over seventy-one snakes to the forest department. One died during the day.

Snake venom is used to make antivenin to treat venomous bites or stings and in certain pharmaceutical formulations. Police are investigating what Kharaghe used the venom for.

A Chakan police team went to the flat after they were tipped off about the smuggling of snake venom and the illegal keeping of snakes.

"When our team raided the flat in Kharabwadi, they found the poisonous snakes inside a wooden box and in sacks in the flat. A search of the flat yielded 30gm snake venom kept in a bottle," police inspector Santosh Girigosavi of Chakan police station said.

Kharaghe told the police he had been extracting venom for six months. "He has two cases registered against him in Sangli and Kalyan. There could be a bigger

racket

since we found many snakes in the flat. Our probe is on," Girigosavi said.


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