A squad of Metropolitan Police Range Office, Hanumandhoka, on Sunday intercepted 226 kg of red sandalwood from Gourighat in Kathmandu following a special tip-off. The smugglers had used mini truck that is normally used for carrying construction materials to transport the logs sandalwood, hiding them under sand. [break]
DSP Chakra Bahadur Singh, spokesperson at MPRO, said, “It is hard to suspect that vehicles that normally carry construction materials would carry sandalwood.”
The police officials say traffickers use such vehicles to cheat local security checking.
During the course of regular checking, Metropolitan Police Circle Bauddha on Friday had detained the same truck after the driver failed to provide required documents. The Bouddha police did not learn about the sandalwood in the truck even though they held the truck for more than 60 hrs.
On Sunday, after the truck owner paid the tax, the vehicle was released but on the way to Gothatar from Bouddha, the police intercepted the vehicle.
The police has arrested the driver and the helper of the truck. The arrested have been identified as driver Vim Kumar Sunuwar, 19, of Katari, Udayapur, and the helper as Khem Bahadur Singh, 17, of Hariban, Sarlahi.
Sunuwar and Singh have claimed innocence and said they were unaware about the red sandalwood in their truck. Sunuwar told the police that a man called Nabin in Kalinchowk Depo had asked them to have some tea and that he might have loaded the sandalwood in the truck while they were having the tea. The vehicle belongs to Ramesh Prajapati of Madhyapur Thimi-16, according to the police.
The police said that they had been tipped off about several smugglers of red sandalwood employing tricky ways to deceive the police team.
On January 12, the police had arrested Akkal Bahadur Fuwaju of Sindhupalchowk with 76 kg of sandalwood that was hidden inside a small car with false bottom. Smugglers have also tried transporting sandalwood hiding under haystacks and some have tried sneaking the wood in powdered form.
In 2005, police made its biggest seizure of sandalwood ever. They had impounded a vehicle carrying six tons of red sandalwood that was being transported to Kathmandu from Jhapa.
A highly sophisticated ring, involving government officials who operate under political protection, smuggles massive quantities of red sandalwood to China from India using Nepal as the transit route, the police officials say. Smugglers have to cross over 68 checking points in Nepal to smuggle redwood to China from India.
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