A truck with a Karnataka registration number was found smuggling sandalwood trees from Kerala to Andhra Pradesh via Tamil Nadu in Pushpa movie style. The Tamil Nadu police chased and caught hold and seized a ton of sandalwood trees worth Rs 1 crore.
Coimbatore: Police have seized a ton of sandalwood trees from a truck that was transporting sandalwood trees in the style of movie 'Pushpa'.
The police were engaged in vehicle audit in areas under podanur police station limits in Coimbatore. As sandalwood trees are being cut down and smuggled in Coimbatore, the Special Cell police are also conducting intensive vehicle checking to nab the sandalwood smuggling gang.
In this situation, when the lorry coming from Malappuram in Kerala was tried to be audited, the lorry did not stop. Following this, they planned to chase the truck and catch it. By then the truck had travelled a long way.
The police then planned to catch up. As the registration number of the truck was not known, they remembered the identity of the vehicle and chased it away and caught it at Athur. The police questioned the truck driver Manoj.
He also said that he did not know that he had stopped the truck because he was sleepy during the investigation. He claimed that the truck contained logs of sawdust.
The police got suspicious and checked the truck.
It was found that a secret room had been set up and sandalwood was hidden and smuggled. They later informed the forest department about it.
The forest department, who reached the spot and seized the truck, took it to the district forest office in Vadakovai area and searched it and found that there was a ton of sandalwood wood.
More than 50 bags containing 1051 kg of sandalwood trees were hidden. It has a market value of Rs 1 crore.