VELLORE: The police personnel attached to the Walajapet station on Wednesday arrested a 23- year-old man for smuggling red sander and seized around 757 kg of red sander logs along with the car, that was used for smuggling them.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of police personnel intercepted a sports utility vehicle along the Walajapet-Vellore Road around 8 am at V C Mottur.
On seeing the police team, the driver of the vehicle abandoned it and escaped. The police, however, arrested Sivakumar (23) of Kollaimedu in Pannavaram. On interrogation, he revealed that they were transporting the heart wood of red sanders to Tiruvannamalai.
The police handed over Sivakumar along with the seized logs and the vehicle to the forest department, who filed a case under Section 35, 35 (b) of the Tamil Nadu Forest Act 1882 and Order 9 of the Timber Transit Rules 1968.
“There are 25 pieces of the heart wood. Each piece is 4.5 ft long, totally weighing 757 kg. According to the rate fixed by the government, the value of the seized logs is estimated at `2.56 lakh,” said an official.
The logs had been smuggled from the reserve forest area in Andhra Pradesh via Tiruvallur. “We are not able to get information of the smugglers as the person under custody is not aware of the network,” said the official.
The forest department officials are conducting further investigations to arrest the person, who had managed to escape.