Agra, Apr 5 (IANS): The owners of an Agra-based firm were taken into custody after thousands of sea snakes, sea horses and various other sea creatures, some banned under the Wild Life Act, were found in formalin-filled drums in the company's warehouse, police said here Thursday.

Ramesh Mahajan and his son Manu Mahajan, owners of Biocraft Scientific System in Nagla Padi locality here, were taken into custody Wednesday.

On a complaint by a Delhi NGO, having links with animal welfare advocate-cum-politician Maneka Gandhi, the Agra police Wednesday raided a warehouse in Nagla Padi locality, and were shocked to find thousands of sea snakes, sea horses and various other species.

Representatives of People for Animals from Delhi, India's largest animal welfare organisation, told police that the link with this local firm was established after zoology labs of Greenfield College and Acharya Narendra Dev college in Delhi were raided in February.

This is the second major incident here of trading in wild life.

In October 2006, a courier company was found to be sending parcels of a company run by one Upadhyaya, who had a warehouse in Kailashpuri colony. The case is still under trial.

Meanwhile, Mahajan told police that the sea creatures were procured from Mumbai and Chennai and were kept in glass jars to be supplied to educational institutions.

He said his firm was legal and registered and was engaged in this work for a decade.