Gang selling ‘cobra venom’ busted in Surat, 7 held: Police

The Surat Special Operation Group (SOG) busted the illegal sale of cobra venom in Surat allegedly being run by a “marriage bureau”, and arrested seven persons in this connection, police said on Monday. The venom was reportedly bought from a person in Ahmedabad whom the police is looking out for.

On a tip-off, a police team carried out raids at the office of ‘Patel Life Partner’ marriage bureau in Sarthana.
Cobra venom was found and tested positive by forensic officials on the spot.  The police identified the seven arrested accused as Manukh Dhinaiya (67), owner of the marriage bureau, Chiman Bhuva (60) of Pasodara in Surat, Praveen Shah (74), Markand Kulkarni (54), Ketan Shah (50) Prashant Shah (41) and Samir Panchal (41), all residents of different areas in Vadodara.

Around 6.5 ml of cobra venom was seized from them, which the police said was valued at Rs 5.85 crore. The arrests were made after forensic tests confirmed what they were selling was cobra venom.

Surat SOG police inspector A P Chaudhary said, “The venom is used in several medicines concerned with heart conditions, cancer, blood pressure and rave parties. We are questioning the accused to get more details.”

Chaudhary added that a person identified as Ghanshyam Soni had sold them the venom and a team had been sent to Ahmedabad to look for him.