The police arrested three sandalwood smugglers while the chief of their gang was able to give the police the slip. The gang is accused of recently raiding the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation depot number five and holding the watchman captive, making away with 15 boles of sandalwood.
According to inspector Vipin Chandra Pant, the police had been looking for clues in the case of the sandalwood theft. An informer informed the police that the thieves were looking for an opportunity to pick up some of the stolen sandalwood which they had hidden in the forest area. The police then received a tip off about the sandalwood smugglers travelling a pickup. Acting on this, a police team headed by sub inspector Vipin Joshi reached a road leading to a stone crusher. The police team saw some persons moving in a pickup truck and on being signaled to halt, the driver sped away. The police gave chase and nabbed Zulfiqar, Vannur Mohammed and Asif Hussain while their leader Abdul Rashid managed to escape from the site. During questioning, the trio confessed to the police that they had raided the corporation depot on the night of September 3 and had stolen 15 pieces of sandalwood after breaking into the godown. They had hidden some of these pieces in the jungle. On Thursday morning they were carrying away the five pieces of sandalwood they had retrieved from the jungle when they were nabbed by the police. The trio has been booked by the police who are now looking for their absconding leader. According to the police, earlier before committing the theft on September 3, Zulfiqar had posed as a customer seeking to buy sandalwood in order to reconnoiter the location. The gang then held the watchman captive and stole sandalwood from the depot. The gang members had sold some of these stolen sandalwood.