pune a gang of five threatened three guards at poona club into submission at knifepoint early on wednesday morning before stealing four sandalwood trees worth rs80000 from the premises the incident follows after thieves stole three sandalwood trees worth rs10000 from a seminary in wadgaonsheri on may 28 a complaint in this regard was lodged with the yerawada police on june 7 the gang in the poona club case ran out of luck when the lonikand police acting on an alert sounded by the bund garden police to all units chased and intercepted the car on the puneahmednagar highway and recovered the four sandalwood logs weighing 200kg in total two car occupants managed to flee while three others including two minors were detained the car was impounded said lonikand polices senior inspector gajanan pawar on thursday adding the three were handed over to bund garden police who referred the minors to an observation home and arrested the third person sheetal khurade 34 who owns the car on thursday the police produced khurade before a magisterial court which ordered his custodial remand till monday said subinspector santosh patil who is now investigating the case the gang hails from rahata in ahmednagar the police are now verifying their involvement in other cases of sandalwood theft poona clubs chief executive officer and secretary ashok sarkar said the police are investigating the case following a complaint by our security personnel we do not wish to offer any comment for now deputy commissioner of police dcp smartana patil told toi investigations into a series of sandalwood tree thefts in the city have revealed the involvement of gangs from ahmednagar jalna and parbhani the gang members conduct a recce to identify the establishments that can be targeted they use sharp weapons and electric cutters to chop trees and sell them to buyers involved in manufacturing and selling sandalwood products at high prices the dcp added we are questioning khurade to find out the number of crimes committed by him and his aides in pune we are also working on clues to trace the whereabouts of the absconding duo on the most recent theft inspector crime ashwini satpute said the gang entered poona club from the back gate facing dastur school they threatened three guards with sharp weapons and axed the trees using electric cutters they sped away in a waiting car the guards did not resist as they were unarmed and scared a cctv camera has captured the images of the gang