The city police nabbed four persons said to be inter-State sandalwood smugglers and seized 46 kg of sandal logs valued at ₹5.5 lakh from them on Friday.
The accused were identified as Bhupathi, Praveen Kumar and Francis of Talwadi taluk, Erode district in Tamil Nadu, and Senthil Kumar of Avinashi taluk in Tiruppur district.
The release said a special squad had been constituted to crack the increase in felling of sandalwood trees being reported from the city since some time.
The police which had spread its dragnet and was scouting for information zeroed in on the four persons and took them into custody when they were moving near a park in a suspicious manner.
When questioned the four admitted to have felled sandalwood trees in different areas of the city and based on the information provided by them 46 kg of sandalwood was seized from the gang, the release added.
Following their arrest the police have cracked 10 cases of sandalwood felling reported from different police station limits in the recent past. This includes 3 cases reported from Krishnaraja, 2 cases each from Nazarbad and Ashokapuram, and 1 case each from Jayalakshmipuram, Lakshmipuram, and Narasimharaja, the release added.
