The Anantapur police on Saturday unearthed a large stock of illegally procured sandalwood in the United Oil Industry located at Basavanapalli village in Amarapuram Mandal, along with sandalwood oil valued at ₹1.27 crore.
Superintendent of Police K. Fakkeerappa Kaginelli at a press conference along with District Forest Officer Sandeep Krupakar Gundala said that on reliable information received by the Forest Department, the police and forest personnel conducted a joint operation from August 1 and checked the entire permitted stock of the factory and unearthed 3,983 kg of chopped sandalwood pieces, for which there were no documents, which was brought from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
“The Kerala police had registered a case against a consignment when it was being transported from Mallapuram without obtaining permissions from the Forest Department, Transport, and the Andhra Pradesh officials for stocking the same on their premises for converting it into sandalwood oil,” Mr. Fakkeerappa added. The police would dig deep into the business carried out in the past and find out for how long such illegal activity was going on, he said.
The police arrested the supervisor of factory A. Christin, 53, along with 16 litres of sandalwood oil concentrate. The owners of the factory, Sankesh Abdul Rehman, 48, and K.P. Mohammed Kutti, 55, conducting the business for the past 25 years, are absconding.
