Woman held for role in sandalwood smuggling in Andhra

Andhra Pradesh Police have arrested one Sangita Chatterjee, a former airhostess from Garia for her alleged involvement in smuggling sandalwood.

She was earlier arrested by the AP police eight months ago in this connection and later released on bail. Police on Wednesday arrested Sangita from her apartment near Joda petrol pump in Garia.

It was learnt that her husband was also arrested by the police a few years ago on similar charges. The AP police had sought the help of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in this connection.

On the basis of specific complaints, the AP police started a case at Kallur police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and sections under Andhra Pradesh Forest Act 196, Wildlife Protection Act 55 (2) and Biological Diversity Act. On the basis of the specific charges, the police from Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh raided the house of the accused and arrested her.

It was learnt that Sangita was arrested around eight months back by Andhra Police but the cops failed to seize some valuables that were kept in a locker of a nationalised bank. Police said that she had kept around 2 kg gold and 1/2 kg platinum in her bank locker.

After carrying out an investigation, police also seized the original deeds of four of her flats in Kolkata. Alipore Court had given her a bail with a condition that she had to attend to the summons of a Tirupati (Chittoor court) but she did not abide by the court order. As a result of this, a court has again issued a notice to arrest the accused woman.

Police said that her boyfriend who is a red sandalwood smuggler, Markondan Laxman, a resident of Chennai has already been arrested from Kolkata in 2015. It was also learnt from the police that the accused's husband started smuggling since 2002 and earned money more than Rs 100 crore. The accused woman also made a huge amount of money by indulging herself in this racket of sandalwood smuggling.

It was learnt that the cops will take a transit remand of the accused to take her to Tirupati.