Some sacs of red sandalwood were recovered from a lorry at Jalpaiguri's Banarhat on NH 31. The value of the wood was approximately Rs 3 crore, police said. The Jalpaiguri police caught the driver of the lorry and seized his vehicle along with those sacs.
The police have handed over the whole consignment to Jalpaiguri district forest department. "We caught the lorry at the national highway on charge of reckless driving. But we got those sacs of red sandalwood while searching his vehicle. Those sacs were hidden behind some other sacs containing wood dust," said the police officer.
Police learnt that the lorry was coming from Dhupguri and its destination was Birpara. "There were some dealers to whom the consignment was supposed to be sent. We have started an investigation. We also learnt that the driver used to regularly carry the consignments for those dealers. He was arrested earlier by the Banarhat police station," the officer added.
It may be recalled that the officials of Sashastra Seema Bal seized around 1,000 kg of red sandalwood worth Rs 10 crore from Jitupara village in Siliguri, in June last year.
The officers got information that red sandalwood had been brought from south India and stored at Jitupara village. The officers raided the area and seized 28 logs of red sandalwood weighing around 1,000 kg. The red sandalwood costs around Rs 10 crore in the international grey market. Later, district police arrested a person, whose name was Siddiqui, in connection with the case. Jitupara village is in Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri district. According to Sashastra Seema Bal sources, Siddiqui gave them information about Sayed Ibrahim, another person involved in the smuggling. Sayed, who was resident of Chennai, was arrested later by the district police.
Meanwhile, the district police officers are now concentrating on some old cases of red sandalwood smuggling. They suspect that the old cases might have some link with this case of seizure of red sandalwood from the lorry.