Pune: Sandalwood thieves threaten woman with sharp weapons and steal tree near Prabhat road

A gang of around eight persons threatened a woman with sharp weapons and stole a sandalwood tree from her bungalow on the Prabhat Road area in the early hours of Saturday.

The 41-year-old woman has lodged the first information report (FIR) in this case at the Deccan police station.

The family members were sleeping when the sandalwood thieves struck, chopped off the tree worth ₹50,000 and fled.

Police said the complainant woman is a resident of a bungalow in Bharati Nivas colony, in the Prabhat road area. She woke up after noticing some suspicious movement outside her house around 3.15 am on Saturday.

The woman allegedly saw some men chopping and stealing a sandalwood tree in her bungalow. She rushed to the spot and raised an alarm to prevent the theft. But the sandalwood thieves threatened to kill her after pointing sharp weapons at her and escaped with the stolen sandalwood.

After receiving information, a police team including Deputy Commissioner of Police Sandip Singh Gill visited the crime scene for investigation. Police have booked the unidentified accused persons in this case under section 310 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Advocate Rohit Erande, husband of complainant Anagha Paralikar, said, “We had protected the tree with a cement ring and there was an iron grill over it which was demolished within a few seconds by the accused using sharp weapons.”

Police sub inspector Bhairavnath Shelke, who is the investigation officer of this case said the search is on for the accused persons.