Kolkata, Aug 18 (IANS): Five persons including two central armed police forces personnel have been arrested on Friday in connection with their alleged involvement in an ivory smuggling racket in north Bengal.

They were arrested following a joint operation by the members of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Siliguri Wildlife Crime Control Bureau at Naxalbari bus-stand under Siliguri sub-division in Darjeeling district.

State forest department sources said that the five arrested in this connection are Tapan Thapa, Prabhu Munda, Dharam Das Lohar, Sriyan Kheria and Rias Pradhan. While Pradhan is a resident of East Sikkim, the other four are residents of Kalchini block of Alipurduar district in north Bengal.

An elephant tusk weighing about a kilogram has been seized from them. State forest department sources said they were taking the item for sale in the market. “All of them had been a part of a local ivory smuggling racket which we had been trying to bust for quite some time,” a senior state forest department official said.

Of the five arrested, one is a staff of Border Security Force while the other is associated with the India Reserve Battalion. The forest department has contacted the local offices of both these central armed police forces and intimated them about the arrest of their staff in the matter.

“After the arrest along with the tusk, the five arrested have been handed over to the cops of the local Naxalbari Police Station. They will be present at a district court on Friday and the police will ask for their custody,” the forest department official said.

Before being handed over to the police they are questioned by the additional divisional forest officer of Kurseong division Bhupen Biswakarma, who tried to extract information from them about their other gang members.