Four arrested for sandalwood smuggling worth Rs 6 lakh

Chennai Nov 19 (UNI) The Crime Branch CID police has arrested four notorious Sandalwood smugglers for running away with sandalwood and red sanders worth Rs six lakh from the State Forest department godown at suburban Tambaram in June, 2006, CB CID sources said.

The sources said, Seeranga Raman, Assistant Coservator of Forest had lodged a complaint with the local police , but the police not only failed to take action on his complaint, but allegedly tried to find fault with the complainant itself.

Following this, the Forest official moved the Madras High Court and sought CBCID inquiry over the theft of department properties, in which the High Court had directed the State Government to institute a CBCID inquiry.

Based on this, the CBCID police after a thorough investigation, arrested Sait alias Muniappan of Virugambakkam. Based on his revelations, they also arrested Murthy alias Punniyamurthy of Coimbatore, Ravi, alias Ravichandran of Pollachi and Raj Mohan of Sivaganga.

The CBCID police recovered sandalwood worth Rs four lakh from the residence of Muniappan and red sanders worth Rs two lakh, which were earlier sold to a party in the city.

They also seized a mini lorry, two lorries and two cars worth about Rs 30 lakh from them.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that some forest department officials were suspected behind this incident.

The arrested were remanded in judicial custody, the sources added.

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