A team of Kerala Forest officials on Monday raided a private sandalwood factory in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, as part of their probe in a sandalwood smuggling case in Kerala. The officials seized a total of 728 kg of sandalwood but are now in a quandary as the Chittoor Forest officials have, in turn, seized the goods from the Kerala officials.
On Wednesday last week, Kerala forest officials in Marayoor, Idukki district, had arrested sandalwood smuggler Shohibe alias Kunjappa from his house in Pookotur, near Malappuram district. During the interrogation, the accused said that he smuggled sandalwood from Kerala to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. “Based on this, we decided to raid the sandal factory in Andhra Pradesh," a Marayoor forest officer told TNM.
On Monday, a 25-member team, led by Munnar District Forest Officer (DFO) Narendra Babu, Marayoor DFO B Ranjit and Range Officer Job Neriamparampil, raided a private sandal factory at Bommasamudram village in Gudipala Mandal in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh.
“The accused had smuggled nearly 20,000 kg of sandalwood to various states and sold it to sandalwood factories in Andhra Pradesh. He sold nearly 10,000 kg of sandalwood to the factory that we raided,” said the official.
The Kerala forest officials told TNM that they had all the required documents and had even sought permission from the Kerala and Andhra Pradesh government to carry out the raid. “However, we did not seek permission from the Chittoor forest authorities in order to maintain secrecy,” the official said.
Once the raid was conducted in the presence of the accused and 728 kg of dry sandalwood was seized, authorities from the Chittoor Divisional Forest office turned up at the factory.
"After the raid, the forest officials, led by Chittoor DFO, blocked us and took away the sandalwood that which we seized, from us,” said the official, adding, “They said that we did not have proper documents to carry out the raid in another state. But we raided and seized the sandalwood with the permission from the state governments as well as a court order.”
The Andhra officials’ version
While the Kerala officials said they carried out the raid on their own, the Chittoor Forest officials claimed it was a collaborated effort. The Chittoor Forest office also claimed to have seized around 400 kg of sandalwood chips.
Speaking to TNM, Jagannath Singh, Chittoor DFO, said that the factory in the Gudipala limits was seized by the forest officials nine years ago after it was found that smuggled sandalwood was stored there.
“Since the seizure nine years ago, the factory owner has been seeking possession of the godown and materials, claiming that he bought the sandalwood from valid sources. But he failed to provide any records to corroborate his claims of purchase, and so we didn't hand over the factory to him,” said Jagannath Singh.
The Chittoor DFO also said that the accused from Kerala recognised the factory as “a similar one where he sold or smuggled” the sandalwood. “So, we will not give the sandalwood to anyone except the godown owner, that is, if he provides the relevant documents to prove it,” stressed the Chittoor DFO, adding that they have also written to state higher officials about the same.
Despite hours of discussions between the two state forest officials, the Chittoor division refused to release the seized goods to Kerala officials, who claim that the sandalwood was smuggled from Marayoor in Idukki.
The Kerala Forest Department officials told TNM that they will approach the Kerala government to get the sandalwood back.