**Bhubaneswar**: A special team of Crime Branch and City Forest Division and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) busted a racket that allegedly involved in selling animal body parts here on Tuesday.
Chintan Joshi, the mastermind of the racket has been detained, in this connection.
Crime Branch Special DGP Bijay Kumar Sharma in his tweet said that around 210 dried hemipenes (sexual organs) of monitor lizards have been seized during the joint raid at Bramheswarpatna area in Bhubaneswar.
Sources said, racketeers used to sell such products on through hathajodi.com at a price ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 15,000.
They were selling it by claiming the items to be ‘plant and astrology’ products, sources further added.
Wildlife Crime Cell of Crime Branch which is investigating the matter has registered a case under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Worth mentioning, monitor lizards are listed under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.