Five people, who allegedly stole a container full of red sanders worth Rs1.90 crore from Uran three months ago, were arrested by the police on Wednesday.
According to the police, the suspects Sainath Patil, 29; Swapnil Patil, 32; Pratap Dhaigude, 53; Avinash Mhatre, 26; all residents of Uran, and Akbar Hussain, 40; a resident of Trombe, stole the container on May 24.
"The container had come to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) around a year ago to be exported to a gulf country. However, the custom department had some suspicions about that container and hence, did not allow it to be exported. It had been lying near a government office along with many other containers since," said Baban Avhad, assistant police inspector from Uran police station.
The suspects stole that container and kept an empty container in its place on May 24. As the empty container also looked similar to the original one, no one realised the theft for the next two months.
"In the last week of July, the custom officials came to know about the theft and informed us about it. We had been investigating the case since then and finally zeroed in on the five suspects on Wednesday," Avhad added.
The police, however, have not been able to recover the stolen container and the red sanders so far. "There were security guards deployed in the area where all the containers were kept. We are now trying to find out how the suspects managed to steal the container in spite of that," he said.
The arrested men are now in police custody. "The fifth accused, Akbar Hussain, has several cases registered against him with the Trombe police. We are also investigating the case to find out if some more people were involved in the crime," another police officer said.
Medicines for various diseases, ointments for burning injuries are made from red sanders. It is also used for blood purification and in preparing some Ayurveda medicines.
The export of red sanders is prohibited in terms of Convention on International Trade in Endangered species of wild flora and fauna (CITES) to which India is signatory.
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