- By Aditya Jha
- Sat, 14 Dec 2024 01:36 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Bengaluru News: The Bengaluru police, in a special drive against the smuggling of precious trees, arrested two people involved in the smuggling of sandalwood in two of the separate cases on Friday. The police stated that they recovered a total of 261.8 kilograms of sandalwood, which cost nearly Rs 20 lakh. They further assured that a probe is ongoing to arrest other members of such criminal networks.
The Subramanyapura police on November 5 intercepted a truck near Uttarahalli, South Bengaluru, on the basis of a tip-off about illegal transportation of sandalwood. The police officers seized 300 pieces of sandalwood that weighed 146 kg. It was estimated that the total cost of the recovered sandalwood was Rs 14.6 lakh, and Sharath, a Mysuru district resident, was arrested in the case.
Further probe revealed that Sharath was delivering the sandalwood to Chetan, another suspect in the smuggling case. The investigation revealed that Yogesh, the prime accused, had loaded the pieces of sandalwood in Kodagu and sent it to Bengaluru for illegal commercial purposes. Police assured that the efforts are underway to detain Yogesh and Chetan.
In another similar incident, the Jnanabharathi Police recovered 115.5 kg of sandalwood from Bangalore University’s Jnanabharati campus after four individuals reportedly attempted to steal sandalwood from the campus. Although all the accused fled from the scene after a confrontation, the police arrested Sakayya alias Saka, 28, later from Ramnagara for his involvement in the case.
The police arrested Sakayya on the basis of details from the mobile phone that the accused left while fleeing the scene. The main accused, Sakayya, is under judicial custody, and the police are regularly questioning him regarding the case. The police are also trying to find the details of the other people involved in the case. The Bengaluru police have also introduced QR codes to streamline the documents seized from the accused.