Surgical Strike on Operation Sandalwood by Central and Whitefield Division Cops Nabbed Kingpin,Father-son duo for smuggling sandalwood

“Sandalwood smuggling gang kingpin nabbed in major operation by DCPs as,D.Devaraja and Abdul Ahad along with their a team of 200 contingent congratulations and kudos to whole team”.

Highlights :

* Central and Whitefield Division cops launched operation sandalwood.

* It was operation sandalwood.

* 2- DCPs,3- KSRP Platoons,15- Inspectors,50- PSIs,80- Constables.

* Total strength of the team was around 200.

* A surgical strike on the Enemy’s den.

* And their den was an entire village.

* More than 60 sandalwood trees chopped off in city in recent past.

* All the trees were in high security zones of the city.

* Both numbers originated from a single phone.

* They were part of a sandalwood smuggling gang.

* Lakshman was assigned the job of identifying the trees.

* Ilayaraja and his gang were only tools.

* It was a work of an organised syndicate.

* The location of the number kept on changing.

* The Father-Son Duo used women as Shield.

* The deadly duo were tammed and nabbed.

* How they identified the kingpins.

In a major pre-dawn swoop, a contingent of 200 armed policemen on Saturday nabbed the alleged kingpin of major sandalwood and red sander smuggling gang of the South and his son from a village on the city outskirts.

The duo was involved in almost all the sandalwood and red sander cutting and smuggling in Karnataka,Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The team has arrested the accused identified as Riyaz and his son Syed Shaikh Ali from their house at Kattigenahalli near Hoskote.They were involved in cutting and transporting sandalwood from government bungalows.

The gang had stolen sandalwood from the bungalows of the chief secretary, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, the police commissioner’s bungalow and other places.

On Saturday, the operation was carried out by DCP Central Devaraja,and DCP of Whitefield division Abdul Ahad, 12 inspectors, 20SIs, 60 constables and Karnataka State Reserve Police jawans in three vehicles.

A contingent of 200 policemen stormed the village at 3 PM before the village woke up to the call for morning Namaaz.

While questioning the gang, police came to know about the Amzadulla brothers from Bagalur, who used to hire another gang from Yercaud in Tamil Nadu to do a recce on government bungalows and carefully cut the trees at night.

The employees and tree felling contractors of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and some policemen were learnt to be on the payroll of the gang to pass on sensitive information about the presence of sandalwood, red sander trees and alerting them whenever any operation was planned against them.

Police could never arrest them despite having information for the past five years because whenever they went, everyone in the village, including women and children, used to pelt stones at policemen.

Police booked the entire gang under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) in which there is no provision for bail for a year.

We have seized Rs.35 lakh in cash, one and half kg of gold and some sandalwood. We got some documents to substantiate that they have been in this illegal business since 2010.

D.Devaraja,DCP Central,told media persons that,Many sandalwood smuggling cases were registered in Jnanabharathi,Kengeri,Madiwala,Mico layout,and Cubbon Park police stations over the last one year.Recently sandalwood trees were chopped down in premises of a government building one sandalwood tree in Ministers residence one at a house located on race course road and one at an apartment block located behind police commissioner’s campus were chopped down and stolen.During our investigation.We identified a gang of sandalwood and red sandalwood smugglers in Karnataka.Imdadullah and his brother from Bagalur were found active in smuggling sandalwood trees earlier the brothers sought the help of Rajendra gang in smuggling the trees then the brothers asked the help of Iliyaraja gang in smuggling the trees.They would cut down the trees at night in government building campuses and in private houses.They were only middlemen.Their bosses were a Father-Son Duo,Riyaz and Syed Sher.Riyaz and Syed Sher ran a syndicate spanning three states so we planned a night attack,They the team ensured that the smugglers had no clue to our operation.When reporters asked,How they identified the kingpins,Devaraja,DCP Central said,We had arrested Ilayaraja gang and Imdadullah recently while interrogating them we found that the sandalwood and red sandalwood trees which were smuggled from Andhra Pradesh,Tamilnadu,and Karnataka were handed over to the men in Kattigenahalli in Bengaluru Rural district these men were transporting the sandalwood we found that the main kingpin was Riyaz and his son.when asked why such a big team,Devaraja said,Riyaz and his son lived and operated and Kattigenahalli they were receiving and delivering the sandalwood trees at night.Two to three years ago police tried to nab them but came under attack from residents of the village who indulged in stone pelting the police officers could not succeed in nabbing the smugglers last week our team comprising three Sub-inspectors and two constables made an effort to arrest the smugglers but failed.Later we have then put our plan into action we analyzed their location and movements and made a proper plan to nab these men.The force headed by Myself and Abdul Ahad,DCP Whitefield,along with 12 -Police inspectors,20-Sub-inspectors,30-constables staff and 3 KSRP Platoons totaling 200 officers rounded up the smugglers at 3 AM in the village we surrounded four houses in the village and searched them we found Riyaz and his son.At first they did not co-operate with us but then we entered into their house through the roof and by opening three doors of the building.And for precautionary measures we took our women officers in the force as their plans was to pelt stones on the police officers.Even women attacked police officers at night.We had our four Women Sub-inspectors and 5 women constables who helped in this operation.The tactics used by these gang is they used to change their number plates of the vehicle and during the operation we seized ten number plates of their vehicles they changed the number plates whenever they needed.They copy the registration numbers of vehicles posted on OLX website make fake number plates and handed over the number plates to Ilayaraja gang from Tamilnadu.They used to handover the cut trees through they used to chop the logs were handed over to the Imdadullah gang in Bagalur.Then the logs were shaped and cut into pieces and were transported on Two-wheelers to Kattigenahalli.Riyaz and his son received the wooden logs from Imdadullah and sold them to sandalwood factories in Tumakuru,Chikkamagaluru,and various sandalwood oil factories we will also nab the sandalwood oil factory owners and stop this sandalwood smuggling it is a large nexus as a Herbalife company had commissioned 500 tons of red sandalwood from these men we also raided another house we nabbed one man but his father escaped we have summoned Herbalife managers for questioning.Seperate teams surrounded the houses and took position we used modern weapons such as SLRS.We searched the houses from 3:30 AM to 5:30 AM.During the operation none of the residents came out of their houses we returned safely from the village.Our officers from Central and Whitefield worked smartly and We have seized Rs.35 lakh in cash,one and half kg of gold and some sandalwood.We got some documents to substantiate that they have been in this illegal business since 2010 and I appreciate the work of the officers who were involved in the operation and we have registered a case under KCOCA Act,against those who were smuggling red sanders.We have taken them into custody along with those who helped them in committing the crime and finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,T.Suneel Kumar,has appreciated,Addl CPs, as,B.K.Singh,Seemanth Kumar Singh,DCPs, as,D.Devaraja,Abdul Ahad,ACPs as,T.Manjunath,Niranjan Raj Urs,PIs,as,B.Iyyana Reddy,Shashidhar,Sirajuddin,Sanjeev Gowda,Harivardhan,Shankaracharya, Praveen Babu,Chandrappa,and others,PSIs,as,Raghavendra,Rahim, Suresh,G.Balaraju,Renuka.J.M,with other PSIs and a contingent staff of totally 200 armed policemen were involved in this surgical strike a major operation was carried by the team to nab the notorious dreaded criminal kingpin Father-son duo for running organised syndicate of smuggling sandalwood in various states with the tremendous efforts and plan of action the team has nabbed the notorious kingpin he added.