A mobile court yesterday seized more than 50 rare turtles from the capital’s Old Dhaka area and jailed three traders for their involvement.
The mobile court was led by RAB 10 Magistrate Sarwar Alam and was accompanied by officials from the Forest Department’s crime prevention unit.
Magistrate Sarwar said 57 rare species of turtles were recovered from two sacks at Shankhari Bazar of Old Dhaka around 6:30am.
The magistrate said of the three traders detained, Pradip Chandra Das, 47, and Ponir Chandra Das, 39, were sentenced to nine months in jail and another detainee Kartik Chandra Das was sentenced to three months in jail.
During interrogation, they said they had been selling turtles for eight years and have been collecting them from Khulna, Narsingdi and Munshiganj.
The magistrate said among the turtles four were female, weighing about 12kgs. The 57 turtles in total weighed around four maunds.
Sarwar said they sold the turtles at Tk1,000 to Tk1,300 per kg.
The turtles were handed over to the crime prevention unit.
