Timber smuggling: 2 Central govt officers & 5 others held

Darjeeling: Two Central government officials were arrested on Wednesday along with five others while trying to smuggle wood from Siliguri to Kolkata.

According to the sources, the teak blocks, which the accused were attempting to smuggle, were worth about Rs. 25 lakh.

The forest department had received a tip off regarding the smuggling bid a few days ago.

They had learnt that a huge consignment of wood blocks had been illegally stocked up in a Custom's godown in Siliguri.

Forest personnel were keeping a close watch on the godown.

In the wee hours of Wednesday, the timbers were loaded in a truck to be smuggled to Kolkata.

The truck was intercepted and the wood was seized by the Forest personnel under the Baikanthapur Forest Division.

As many as seven persons were arrested and a Scorpio SUV was seized along with the truck around 1:30 am on Wednesday.

"Seven persons were arrested including two Customs Superintendents Avimanyu Majhi and Debasish Dhar. The seized truck contained 22 CM of Teak blocks," stated Jayanta Mandal, ADFO, Baikanthapur Forest Division.

The accused include 44-year-old Debasish Dhar, who is a Superintendent of CGST and Central Excise.

He is already under suspension from his department for illegal activities.

Another accused is Avimanyu Majhi, a 55-year- old resident of Dagapur, Siliguri.

The others arrested include Rakesh Ranjan Dey (44 years) of Bhaktinagar; Rohil Khan (22 years) of Haryana; Nishar Khan (28 years) of Rajasthan; Arnab Ghosh (40 years) of Goa and Vikash Agarwal (41 years) of Jyotinagar, Sevok Road, Jalpaiguri. Meanwhile, further investigation is underway.