How city police outsmarted red sanders smugglers

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru:

Busting a major network of red sanders smugglers in the city, the Byatarayanapura police arrested five people and recovered 1693 kg of stolen red sanders worth Rs 2.68 crore from them. The accused were identified by the police as Vinod, Lakshmaiah, Sanjay, Raju and Krishna.

The arrests were made based on credible information regarding the accused trying to sell the stolen logs of red sanders which they had hidden at New Timber Layout near Mysuru Road Satellite Bus Stand, the police said. A probe was launched by the Inspector of police Shankar Naik, who raided the spot, arresting the prime accused, Vinod.

After his arrest, the police seized two logs of red sanders weighing 17 kg and a bike from his possession. Based on the inputs obtained from Vinod, police raided a house near Hesaraghatta seizing 1,563 kg of red sander logs hidden inside a sump. Later Lakshmaiah, Sanjay, Raju and Krishna were later arrested from a place near NICE Road junction here and logs weighing 113 kg were seized from them.

However, the police said that another accused involved, Ajay, is absconding and search is on to nab him soon. A case has been registered under the Karnataka Forest Act and the IPC section dealing with the theft of red sanders. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru West, Laxman B Nimbargi, lauded the efforts of the Byatarayanapura police team.