Guwahati, Jan. 7 : A truckload of red sander logs, which was illegally smuggled to the state, was seized by sleuths of the Bureau of Investigation of Economic Offences, from Patgaon in Kokrajhar district last night.
The logs were concealed under sacks containing rice and soyabean.
The sleuths seized the truck (bearing registration number HR-55/C 0759) and arrested its driver Sarabjit Singh, hailing from Bihar’s Ara district.
The challan produced by the driver showed that the truck was carrying rice from Bardhaman district in West Bengal to Agartala in Tripura.
The superintendent of police (BIEO), S.A. Karim, said, the team seized the consignment with the help of local police. “The operation was carried out based on a tip-off. The BIEO team was lead by deputy superintendents of police (BIEO), U. Chetri and A. Ahmed. The owner of the truck is Randhir Singh of Gurgaon. We will try to track him down to ascertain the origin and destination of this consignment,” he added.
Though the logs are not yet weighed, the SP said the approximate weight of the seizure will be seven to eight tonnes and its value in the international market will be about Rs 5 crore.
Red sander is grown in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Another police official said the consignment was probably brought from south India and was supposed to be smuggled out of the country.
“We have information about the smuggling of red sander to Myanmar through northeastern states as the wood has great demand in the Southeast Asian countries,” he said.
Red sander, also known as red sandalwood, has a huge demand in China and Japan as it is used for making musical instruments, furniture, traditional medicine and toys.
It is also believed that because of the presence of radioactive elements like thorium and uranium, red sanders might be used as a coolant in nuclear reactors.
This could be one of the reasons for the Southeast Asian nations becoming a preferred destination for the logs.
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