Delhi police has arrested a 41-year-old man from Delhi's Asola Village here for allegedly supplying fine quality of red sandalwood.
The accused has been identified as Amit Verma, a resident of Darjeeling, West Bengal. A total of 571.4 kilograms sandalwood worth Rs 2 crore in international market was seized.
According to Dr G Ram Gopal Naik, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime Branch, police received an information on Monday that a person has taken a godown on rent in Asola village where some illegal red sandalwood were lying.
"Acting on the information, a police team laid a trap near Asola village and arrested the accused on Monday at around 7 PM and eight logs of red sandalwood were recovered from the godown which were concealed under the scrap of clothes," said the DCP.
"However, a Wildlife Inspector was called who identified the recovered logs as Red Sanders (Pterocarpus Santalinus) and are of superior quality," the DCP said.
"During interrogation, Verma disclosed that he, along with his other associate, was smuggling the red sandalwood from Karnataka in trucks, concealing with the help of scrap of clothes," said the DCP.
"Two Nepalese are the main receivers of the sandalwood in Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) who further smuggle them to China and other countries," said the DCP adding that they are trying to nab the remaining accused.