15 tonnes of sandalwood worth crores seized in Manesar

Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, November 28

The city seems to have become a transit point for sandalwood smuggling as 15 tonnes of red sandalwood was seized by the police from a warehouse in IMT, Manesar.

Sources said the wood was seized from a sandalwood handicraft factory along with five machines, 4 tonnes of wood dust and a car. The police arrested two from the spot as they fail to explain the source of the wood.

Narender Kumar, Range Forest Officer, tipped the cops and a raid was conducted at the warehouse. While the workers managed to flee, two accused- Tenji Sharma and Safal Rasaili - were arrested. The owner - Tanjig Narbu - a resident of Green Park, Delhi, is on the run.

“A FIR on the statement of SI Vinod Kumar of crime unit, Palam Vihar, has been lodged against Tenji Sharma, Safal Rasaili and Tanjig Narbu under Sections 379, 411, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-b of the IPC and various sections of the Forest Act,” said Inspector Jagdish Prasad, SHO, Bilaspur police station.

“The seized sandalwood is worth crores in the international market. On being interrogated the accused said that owner of the factory was their kingpin.”

Prior to this, the police had seized 1,231 kg of sandalwood at Dharuhera in September while it was being transported from Chennai to Gurgaon in a lorry.