India: Officials of the forest department and a team of policemen from Bilaspur seized more than 21 tonnes of red sandalwood from a warehouse near Bilaspur on Wednesday.

The accused, Rejender, who is a history sheeter, owns the factory that makes handicrafts from sandalwood, according to police. Two machines and some other sandalwood items were seized from the spot.

Rajender, from Rajasthan, was arrested along with his driver, Sukhpal, in March 2014 by police in a guesthouse, located in DLF-I, which was leased by him to store sandalwood for trading. Police had confiscated 6,500kg sandalwood from him at that time.

The accused was out on bail and restarted his business more than six months ago.tnn

"On the statement of Subhash Yadav, district forest officer (DFO), Gurgaon, we have lodged an FIR against the accused Rajender under various sections of IPC and forest act. We are conduct raids to nab the accused, who is absconding", said inspector Ajay Kumar, SHO, Bilaspur police station.

(Source: The Times of India)