What goes in has to come out: With this maxim, small-time Tamil actor and entertainer Manoharan puts highly protected snakes in his mouth, their heads emerging through his nostrils. Then he eats them alive.

With a website boasting of his “heroism” and parts in Tamil and Telugu films, he had managed to evade the law, acquiring a popularity of sorts.

But on Tuesday, luck ran out for the self-proclaimed “snake hero”. Trapped by a decoy customer, he, alongwith an accomplice, landed in the net of Delhi Police’s Crime Branch and People for Animals (PFA) at the Nizamuddin railway station.

Tightly wound boxes containing two baby crocodiles, a cobra and three vine snakes were recovered from his possession. All three species are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act and there is a strict ban on buying, trading or consumption of these. Poaching crocodiles and cobras is punishable by a jail term of up to seven years.

In his correspondences with the decoy customer, Manoharan had demanded $2000 for each crocodile and $500 for each cobra. He had also told the decoy customer that he would come to Delhi only if a luxury car and five-star accommodation were arranged for him.

An official of the Nizamuddin police station said: “He said he is a famous person and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for eating worms.”

On his website, www.snakemanu.com, Manoharan is seen with spectacled cobras, vine snakes, wolf snakes — all protected species — coming out of his nose. In one image, he is seen eating a wolf snake. The website also claims that he was included in the Guinness Book for eating the maximum number of 10-cm-long worms in 30 seconds.

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