The High Grounds police claimed to have solved a few sandalwood theft cases, including the one on the IISc campus, with the arrest of a 23-year-old man recently.
The suspect has been identified as Imadullah, a resident of Saraipalya. The police have recovered sandalwood worth Rs 20 lakh and a car used to commit the crime.
In the wake of a series of chain-snatching incidents, the High Grounds police had erected picketing points at a few junctions and were checking vehicles. They found a car moving around suspiciously and tried in vain to stop it.
However, they jotted down its registration number and approached the RTO to extract the details of the owner. They then learnt that the car belonged to Imadullah and summoned him to the police station for questioning.
During interrogation, Imadullah confessed to stealing sandalwood, they said.A senior police officer said Imadullah would do a recce of locations looking for sandalwood trees.
“During interrogation, Imadullah revealed that after spotting a tree, he would hire labourers from Tamil Nadu and pay them Rs 2,000 per night for chopping it down. The labourers would do a neat job and deliver the sandalwood at a designated place and return to their native places. The logs were then transported to Andhra Pradesh and from there to other places,” said the officer.
Imadullah’s father Amjadullah was also into sandalwood poaching, but gave it up due to his old age, the police added. DH News Service