Police in Bengaluru, Kengeri arrested a man for smuggling red sandalwood on Thursday
o Bengaluru Police catch sandalwood smuggler, called raktachandan, inside a red-coloured vehicle. on Thursday.Â
o He was arrested after police grew suspicious about a vehicle at a regular checkpoint.
Police in Bengaluru’s Kengeri on Thursday arrested a man for allegedly smuggling red sandalwood, also called raktachanda, inside a red vehicle. He was arrested after police grew suspicious about the vehicle during a regular checkpoint.
The passengers tried to flee while being questioned but Kengeri Police managed to nab one person and recover five logs of red sandalwood worth ₹3.15 lakh.
Laxman B Nimbargi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Bengaluru tweeted that the accused, who was caught with red sandalwood in his vehicle, was arrested at a police checkpoint and red sandal worth 3.15 lakh was seized from him. The total weight of recovered sandalwood was 105 kgs and the accused has been taken into custody. The red car in which the sandalwood is being transferred has also been seized.
Kengeri Police are conducting further investigations to catch the remaining accused, who fled the scene- the ones who managed to escape the police check point. The red car, reported to be a Toyota, has an Andhra Pradesh number plate.
In February, a Bengaluru-based man, Yasin Inayithulla, was arrested for smuggling red sandalwood. He claimed to have been inspired by the 2021 Telugu flick based on sandalwood smuggling called Pushpa, starring Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna. Logs worth ₹2.45 crore were recovered from under him.
He was allegedly inspired by the smuggling tricks on reel and tried to recreate the same tricks while smuggling red sandalwood wood in his truck in real life. Yasin Inayithulla was found smuggling red sandalwood in his truck on the way from the Karnataka-Andhra border to Maharashtra.
When he crossed the border, Maharashtra police in Gandhi Chowk, Meeraj Nagar in Sangli district apprehended him and seized the sandalwood worth Rs 2.45 crore along with his truck, which was worth Rs 10 lakh.
In the movie Pushpa, actor Allu Arjun can be seen smuggling red sandalwood by loading wood in the truck first, followed by milk. Inspired by this, Yasin had loaded the truck with red sandalwood first and on top of that, fruits and vegetable boxes. On the vehicle, he had pasted a sticker of COVID-19 essential products as a guide.
Bengaluru: Police catch sandalwood smuggler also called raktachanda, inside a red vehicle on Thursday
