Tenant verification drive exposes sandalwood smuggling racket in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Police busted a

sandalwood smuggling racket

during a

tenant verification

drive near Welcome in northeast Delhi on Thursday. While checking their identity proof, a policeman spotted a suspicious-looking bag at the corner of the room and 1,340kg red sandalwood costing over Rs 1 crore was found stuffed in it.


The men confessed that they had smuggled it from a dealer in Chennai and were to sell it to a customer in Moradabad. DCP (northeast) Atul Kumar Thakur said Mohammad Nadeem and Mohammad Basil had tried to mislead the team. But when the bag was emptied, sandalwood branches, cut into small pieces, were found. Basil said Nadeem, a resident of Chennai, had got the sandalwood from a contact. A case of theft and criminal conspiracy, and under Indian Forests Act was registered and the men were arrested.