Remand for conman
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 20 2024:
The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Imphal West has remanded Lakshamanan, a sandalwood and redwood smuggler, who was arrested on December 10 to judicial custody till December 31, 2024 .
Lakshamanan (48), s/o Markandan, of Chennai, Tamil Nadu was produced before the Court on completion of his police custody period by Imphal police with a prayer to send him to judicial custody.
The defence counsel, on the other hand, filed a remand objection and sought bail of his client.
The case against Lakshamanan as per police is that a team of Imphal police detained an orange Tata Ace which was coming from Babupara side for checking in front of a toy store called Big Toys at Moirangkhom Makha Loklaobung on November 30 at around 7.20 pm and later identified the driver as one Md Rafijuddin (35), s/o Md Feijuddin of Lilong Chaobok Mairen Khun.
Some logs were found concealed among dry straws inside the vehicle.
The driver could not produce any valid documents of the vehicle during the checking and as such Rafijuddin was taken to Imphal police station along with the vehicle for further checking and verification.
On further checking, police found 19 more logs and one white poultry feed bag white marked as SUPER-STAR inside the vehicle, according to police who added that three more logs, one pistol and five rounds of ammunition were found concealed inside the bag.
As per police, Rafijuddin disclosed that he was a member of an inter-State smuggling syndicate.
Rafijuddin was arrested at around 8.10 pm on November 30.The APP, meanwhile, submitted that Lakshamanan was arrested in connection with the case from outside Cheirap Court in Imphal West on December 10 .
What APP submits
During the course of interrogation, Lakshamanan disclosed that he introduced other members of the syndicate to Md Rafijuddin while they were at Kolkata and Guwahati.
The syndicate members handed over Rs one lakh to Rafijuddin and instructed him to collect redwoods from a Tata Truck from North AOC Imphal and to hand over the woods to Ashang, a Myanmar National at Yairipok Mayai Khul.
They (the syndicate members) also instructed Rafijuddin to buy gold from Myanmar with the money received from selling the red sandalwood and to take the gold to Kolkata and Delhi.
From the investigation conducted so far, prima facie evidence is well established that the accused is a member of an inter-State syndicate gang and a dealer of expensive woods.
The defence counsel submitted that the accused was arrested on December 10 in front of Cheirap Court while he was coming out from the Court along with his Advocate/Counsel after furnishing his personal bail bond and surely in connection with another case at Imphal police station.
It is further submitted that the accused was arrested on the basis of the false statement given by Md Rafijuddin.
In rebuttal, APP for the State submitted that a checklist had already been given on the first production of the accused before the Court and the information about his arrest was given to his brother.
The APP also argued that the accused is not a first time offender and there are numerous cases against him.
The Court after hearing the submission of APP, defence counsel and on perusal of the materials on record remanded the accused to judicial custody till December 31, 2024 by rejecting the bail application.
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