Haryana police today claimed to have recovered red sandalwood worth "crores of rupees" from Gurgaon with the arrest of a person, an official said.
"Acting on a tip off that a truck carrying red sandalwood is heading towards Kolkata from Subhash Chowk, Gurgaon, the Crime branch unit, Gurgaon, immediately formed a team of officials and inspected the truck, and found red sandalwood in large quantity loaded in refrigerators inside the truck," a spokesman of Police Department said here today.
"The driver, Naresh, a resident of Gurgaon, was arrested from the spot, who could not produce papers regarding red sandalwood transport," he said.
On investigation, the truck driver revealed that the truck had been taken from a godown near hotel Hyatt turn in Gurgaon and was being taken to Kolkata.
"The arrested person also revealed the name of the kingpin as Dilbag, a resident of Rohtak district who has set up a godown near the hotel," he said.
The driver also informed the police that the smuggler of red sandalwood who poses as a dealer of brooms from Kolkata to Gurgaon used to smuggle red sandalwood to Kolkata which he used to get from Tamil Nadu," he stated.
The investigations revealed involvement of four to five persons more, he said, adding the arrested driver also revealed that he had been working in godown for the last seven years but got involved in this smuggling for want of more money.
The spokesman further said that the officials from Forest department had been called for inspection of recovered red sandalwood, who said after inspection that those red sandalwood were of high quality and market price of the same is Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 per kg.
"The wood is used for making expensive furniture, showpieces and musical instruments and such red sandalwood grows in South India. A case has been registered under various sections of IPC and Indian Forest Act at police station Gurgaon," he said, that adding further investigations were on.
