After carcass meat, rotten chicken racket busted in Kolkata

Amid an ongoing crackdown on rackets supplying carcass meat to hotels and restaurants here, police on Friday arrested eight persons for allegedly selling rotten chicken to various eateries in the city.

Officers of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate arrested in the morning two persons for bringing around 70 kgs of rotten chicken to a restaurant near the airport here for sale.

Based on inputs received from the two accused, a raid was conducted on a poultry farm in the Rajarhat area where massive stockpile of rotten chicken was found, the police said.

"During the raid, several kilograms of rotten chicken was found kept in three freezers. A number of dead hens were also found. Initially, we detained six persons from the poultry farm, but later all of them were arrested," a senior officer at the Rajarhat Police Station told IANS.

"Samples of chicken stored in the freezers and the chemicals applied on them were also collected. The poultry and the adjoining office have been sealed," he said.

The accused are being interrogated to know about the others involved in the racket and the places where such chicken was supplied, the police said.

The rotten chicken trade came to light two days after the police busted a racket involved in selling carcass meat and seized nearly 20 tonnes of meat from a cold storage in central Kolkata.

Six persons were arrested over the carcass meat trade.

The racket used to collect carcass meat from different dumpyards in and around the city and store it in a cold storage, which was later supplied to various city restaurants and departmental stores, the police said.

--IANS

mgr/nir