Local company names would be printed on the top of the packages and sold to restaurants. Worse still, fake labels of reputable companies would be used. | Photo Credit: Indiatimes, Representative Image

Kolkata: 20 tonnes of carcass meat, packed and ready to be sold were discovered at an ice factory in Rajabazar during a night-long raid on Wednesday. This took place after police arrested three people on charges of carrying carcass meat, reports TOI. This, in essence, validates the belief police have had for a long time: carcass meat is not an individual affair but a thriving industry. Now, six other people have been arrested and the three initially arrested have claimed that the meat was mostly that of stray dogs and cats. However, the KMC has advised that conclusions shouldn’t be drawn before scientific tests are done.

The carcass meat was allegedly mixed with fresh meat in neatly packed packages, each weighing 20 kg, and sold to hotels and restaurants after being treated with chemicals at -44 °C for four to five days. While MMiC Atin Ghosh and the Budge Budge Police are both getting the meat tested separately, experts believe detection will prove difficult considering that it was mixed with fresh meat. “We have arrested Malik based on a tip-off from those we had nabbed earlier,” said Koteswar Rao, the South 24 Parganas SP. “During initial questioning, the accused revealed the carcasses were picked up from the dump yards of Budge Budge, Sonarpur and even Kalyani. Supplies from other dumping grounds within a 50km radius of Kolkata cannot be ruled out,” officials told TOI.

Police sources state that the accused were in league with informers who kept an eye on dumping yards and informed Malik the moment any carcass was dumped. For each tip-off, the informers earned around Rs 100. Soon, a team would arrive with a van carrying ice and retrieve the carcass. The meat would be cut off, further extracted at the Rajabazar cold storage and chemically processed, the TOI report further details. “These would be consumed as sausages, meatballs, ham, and salami,” an investigator claimed, adding that local company names would be printed on the top of the packages and sold to restaurants. Worse still, fake labels of reputable companies would be used.

