Kolkata, May 4: A day after police arrested the kingpin of a carcass meat selling racket in the city, another linkman of the racket was arrested from the Kolkata airport area, police said on Friday.

Following the arrest of the kingpin of a carcass meat selling racket in the city, police apprehended another person from the city airport area for allegedly working as a linkman between the racket and buyers, a senior official said on Friday.

"A person named Sikandar Ali was arrested from the airport area in Dumdum on Thursday night. The prima facie evidence shows that he worked as a linkman in this case," Diamond Harbour Superintendent of Police Koteshwar Rao told IANS.

"The arrested persons are being interrogated to determine their involvements in the racket. The raids by the Special Investigating Team are going on in Kolkata and the adjoining districts," he said.

The police had last week busted a racket involved in processing the flesh of carcasses collected from dumping grounds in and adjoining suburbs and selling it to local restaurants and departmental stores and seized huge quantity of rotten meat from a city cold storage.

Police has arrested 12 people so far including the kingpin Biswanath Garai (52), who also owned the cold storage in north Kolkata's Narkeldanga.

Meanwhile, officials of Kolkata Municipal Corporations and district municipalities conducted fresh raids in local restaurants and eateries and sent food samples for testing.

Two restaurants in Dunlop in city's northern fringes were sealed after large quantity of rotten chicken, fish items were seized from there.

Political parties including a local committee of Congress staged demonstrations in front of Kolkata Corporation demanding measures to ensure food safety.

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Chennai, Nov 2: A 27-year-old native of Thiruvarur district, who had arrived from Sharjah, has tested negative for monkey pox, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said here on Saturday.

Test results from both the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research here and the Pune-based National Institute of Virology have show negative for Mpox virus, the minister said.

Subramanian had earlier in the day told reporters that result was awaited for the sample that had been dispatched to the NIV while test result from King Institute ruled out monkey pox.

On October 31, upon his arrival at Tiruchirappalli airport from the UAE, during screening, the young man displayed fever symptoms and small skin lesions. Hence, he was taken to a government hospital.

Subramanian said the returnee had been frightened and hence left for his hometown of Valangaiman in Thiruvarur district. "This treatment is for his good and in order to prevent the spread of infection," the minister said.

Hence, he was brought back to the hospital by the authorities with police help and he has been receiving good treatment at the state-run facility. Further, Subramanian said that the test result from the government-run King Institute indicated Chickenpox and marked negative for presence of Mpox.

Screening at airports for passengers arriving from foreign countries is going on continuously in the state and international airports have dedicated isolated rooms.

Special wards are ready in government medical college hospitals, including those in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli, to provide treatment for Mpox, in case anyone tests positive for the infection, the minister added.