Four sandalwood smugglers from Kanpur and Rampur axed three sandalwood trees in the Uttarakhand Forestry Research Institute here after holding the two watchmen captive at gunpoint.
The Forest Department was able to nab two of the smugglers with some of the precious wood, but the other two criminal succeeded in escaping with a substantial quantity of the sandalwood.
Four criminals entered the institute compound on Monday midnight and began chopping the sandalwood trees there. Hearing the noise, watchman Sri Ram came to check and was held hostage at gunpoint. When the Ram did not return to his post 30 minutes later, his colleague Gopal Bahadur came looking for him and was also held by the criminals.
The watchmen were thrashed by the four criminals who then axed three sandalwood trees and loaded the wood into a car at about 4 am. Hearing the commotion and witnessing the crime, labourer Amar Singh, who lives in the campus, informed the institute’s forester AB Belwal on the telephone.
The department staff reached the site and was able to nab two of the criminals with 22 blocks of sandalwood. However, by this time, two of the smugglers had left with considerable quantity of sandalwood in the car.
Belwal registered a police complaint in the local Kotwali against masked men stealing sandalwood from the compound. The police have registered cases against the Forest Act. The two men nabbed-Rampur resident Abid and Vilaspur resident liyaqat were handed over by the department staff to the police.
The lalkuan police conducted a search operation on Tuesday morning but by that time the other two criminals had escaped with the precious wood.