Suspected smugglers decamp with sandalwood trees from Odisha mutt

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Mar 3:

Unidentified miscreants on Monday night felled as many as four sandalwood trees and took it with them from the Ram Krishna Mutt garden under Lingaraj police station limits in Odisha capital.

sandalwoodAs there was no security guard manned to keep a watch on the religious place, it made the job easy for the wood smugglers.

“We suspect that this might be the handiwork of some professional miscreants who have used a machine for chopping the trees. They targeted the garden after locating the trees earlier and have taken the sandalwood trees outside the Mutt boundary as there were no security guards there,” Swami Adiwananda, a member of Mutt said.

“The theft came to light this morning after we spotted the chopped trees inside the Mutt premises,” he added.

Though the smugglers were successful in decamping with four trees, they could not transport a tree which was left behind in the garden.

The Mutt administration has lodged a complaint with local police as well as local forest officials. They have also reported the matter to the City DCP Satyabrata Bhoi about the case.

Meanwhile, police team have reached the spot and is investigating into the matter.

The estimated cost of the stolen sandalwood trees would be over Rs 5 lakhs, said a police officer.

 

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