One held for smuggling red sandalwood

One person was arrested today on the charge of attempting to smuggle red sandalwood logs worth Rs six lakh in a reserve forest area in the district and a search was on for two of his accomplices, including a suspended police constable, who managed to escape.

The trio was seen loading the logs into a mini lorry by a team of forest personnel on a routine patrol in Ramiyanahalli reserve forest, 43 km from here in Harur forest division late last night, Harur DFO S Subramanian said.

When the officials tried to round up the three, they fled from the scene. But, the officials managed to get hold of K Jaganathan (35) of Chennai and seized the red sandalwood logs and the lorry.
 

During interrogation, he identified his accomplices as S Venkatachalam (45) of Chennai and S.Arun of Kolagampatti village in Dharmapuri district.

Venkatachalam was a police constable and had been suspended, the DFO said.