Nagpur: UNIT-II of Crime Branch busted a sandalwood smugglers’ gang by putting three persons behind bars and taking two juvenile delinquents into custody. Cops seized more than 3.300 kg sandalwood worth Rs 15000 and two motorcycles worth Rs one lakh from their possession.
The gang had also cut sandalwood trees from Raj Bhavan premises and Ram Giri. With the arrest of three members of the gang, Crime Branch detected five sandalwood theft cases registered at Sadar, Sitabuldi and Ambazari Police Stations.
The accused have been identified as Jaisingh Motilal Sengaya (43), a resident of Gonhi, Shubham Ashok Kankoje alias Lodhi (22), Adarsh Ramu Rajput (26), both residents of Dongargaon, Katol, and two boys in conflict withthe law. The gang used to cut the treesduring dark hours and sell thestolen sandalwood to somepersons in other states, including one Shahim Pathan of Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh.
Theaccused had sold about 40 kgsandalwood to Pathan so far. Acting on a tip off, a team of Unit-II of Crime Branchtrapped accused Jaisingh atGonhi in Katol taluka andseized the sandalwood. The arrests were made bySenior PI Kishor Parvate, API Pawar, API Tushar Kalel, WPSI Laxmichhaya Tambuskar andconstabulary staff under thesupervision of Commissionerof Police Amitesh Kumar, JointCP Aswathi Dorje, Additional CP (Crime) NavinchandraReddy, DCP (Detection)Chinmay Pandit and ACP(Crime) Roshan Pandit.
