Sandal wood thieves’ gang busted

Aurangabad, June 4:

The crime branch police busted a gang stealing the sandalwood at various places in the city and arrested five members of the gang near Cambridge Chowk on Friday night. The police have seized 21 kgs sandalwood, two motorcycles, mobile phones and cash, all amounting Rs 1,94,600 from the thieves. The arrested have been identified as Gauskhan Mehmood Khan (60, Fazalwadi, Phulambri, Anis Khan Ayub Khan (21, Adgaon Mahuli), Nayyum Ayub Pathan (26, Fajalwadi), Nsavb Khan Ali Khan (24, Adgaon) and Salim Mohammad Khan (26, Fajalwadi).

Last year, sandalwood trees were stolen from 16 places including Subhedari Rest House, district collector residence, Shreynagar, Waluj MIDC and others. This years Sandalwood was stolen from four places in the city. The Sandal smugglers used to cut the trees without fear for the past two years. Taking cognizance of the increased incidents, CP Dr Nikhil Gupta directed the crime branch to take stern action against the sandal smugglers. Under the guidance of ACP Ravindra Salokhe and PI Avinash Aghav, PSI Amol Deshmukh and his team was after the smugglers. The police received the information that the smugglers are coming to the Cambridge Chowk to sell the sandalwood. Acting on the tip off, the police team including PSI Deshmukh, Nandkumar Bhandare, Kiran Gawande, Sanjaysingh Rajput, Deepak Deshmukh, Omprakash Bankar, Nitin Deshmukh, Dharmaraj Gaikwad, Baban Ippar, Avinash Thore, Mohini Chincholkar and others laid a trap at Savangi By-pass near Cambridge School. Five persons came on two motorcycles and the police stopped them. They tried to flee away from the scene but the police nabbed them and seized 21 kgs sandalwood from them. During investigation, they confessed that they have stolen wood from district collector’s residence, Waluj MIDC, Cantonment Board office, Christ Church Cantonment, Chikalthan ST Workshop, Shreynagar, Osmanpura, CADA officer, Samarthnagar, Pushpanagari, Cidco N-3, Suvarnapedhi area, Mukundwadi village, Viddyut Colony, Nath Valley School area, Hudco N-11, Idea Call Centre, Mahavir Chowk area, Kannad and Jalna district.