Two passengers apprehended at Delhi airport for carrying 43 kg red sandalwood

NEW DELHI: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) nabbed two persons who were allegedly trying to smuggle around 43 kg of red sandalwood on the basis of profiling at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The incident took place on Saturday, at around 9:30 pm when the CISF surveillance & intelligence personnel at Terminal-3 of IGI Airport selected two passengers, on profiling basis, for thorough checking in the check-in area of Terminal-3.

Following this, they were diverted to random checking point for thorough checking of their luggage. On physical checking of the passengers' items of baggage, several bundles of red sandalwood weighing approximately 43 kg were found inside their bags. 

The passengers, identified as Vishal Kumar, passport no T6048864 and Ankit Kumar, passport no R1768065, were both of Indian nationality. They were travelling to Hong Kong by an Air India flight, scheduled to depart on 11:05 pm on October 12. 

During the inquiry, the passengers could not produce any documents for carrying red sandalwood in such huge quantities. Following this, both the passengers along with the recovered red sandalwood were handed over to the Customs officials for further action.

Earlier in September, three men were arrested with 160 kg red sandalwood by the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) personnel at Terminal-3 of the IGI airport. The value of recovered wood was estimated to be Rs 13 lakh.

One of the accused had entered the plane after completing all formalities. He was deboarded.