BHOPAL: Sandalwood thieves are not hesitating to target even the VIP zones of Bhopal. In less than a week, unidentified miscreants cut down trees from the 74-Bungalow and Chaar Imli areas.
On Thursday, the Habibganj police booked three unidentified miscreants for cutting down a sandalwood tree from a small nursery located in front of D-29, a bungalow allotted to Makrand Deuskar, who is officer on special duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister.
The accused took away the fallen tree around 1 pm on Wednesday. However, they have been caught on the CCTV cameras installed around the spot. The three accused are seen carrying away the sandalwood tree log on their shoulders and walking away from the area. They are seen walking easily on foot and it appears no one even questioned them about where they were taking it.
‘Previous culprits grilled’ ‘The accused target only those areas where sandalwood trees are found. There have been incidents in Shyamla Hills of theft of trees and the culprits were arrested. We’re grilling the suspects who were arrested earlier, as there are chances that they might be involved in these thefts’ —Rajat Saklecha, ASP
Earlier, on Friday, unidentified men had entered the bungalow of minister Gopal Bhargaw in the 74-Bungalow area. Both these areas are dotted with the bungalows of ministers and senior bureaucrats.
Police clueless
Nearly one and a half month ago, in a similar manner, the thieves had tried to make off with a tree from the bungalow of Congress MLA Jitu Patwari in the Chaar Imli area
However, the police are clueless in all the incidents and they only suspect that the thieves are not from Bhopal; they had only come to commit theft
