Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (JD)

Karkala, Aug 7: A major sandalwood theft case has been cracked by the Karkala rural police, resulting in the arrest of three accused and the recovery of stolen sandalwood logs worth Rs 4 lac.

The incident occurred at the plantation of Dinesh Shettigar in Nitte village, under the jurisdiction of the Karkala rural police station. On the night of June 16, miscreants allegedly stole a total of nine sandalwood trees valued at around Rs 4 lac. A case was registered.

The investigation was led by PSI Prasanna M S of the law and order and traffic division and PSI Sundar from the investigation division of the Karkala rural police station. Their efforts led to the arrest of three individuals: Ganesh (44), currently residing near Nehru Durga High School, Ayyappa Nagar, Kukkundoor, Karkala taluk; Santosh (35) of Marne village, Karkala taluk; and Moyudeen alias Moyidu Kunj (60) of Ira village, Bantwal taluk.

The police recovered the stolen sandalwood logs from the accused. During interrogation, the trio confessed to their involvement in similar sandalwood thefts in the jurisdiction of the Shirva police station as well. The accused have been produced before the competent court.

The operation was carried out under the guidance of Udupi district superintendent of police Hariram Shankar and the supervision of Karkala sub-division assistant superintendent of police Dr Harsha Priyamvada. Karkala circle inspector Manjappa D R provided operational leadership.

The successful arrests and recovery were executed by a team comprising PSIs Prasanna M S and Sundar, ASIs Prakash and Sundar Gowda, and constables Rudresh, Chandrashekhar, Sumitra, Mahantesh, Somashekara S G, Ravindra, Anand, and Shashikala.