A sandalwood tree was allegedly chopped down and stolen from the bungalow of senior IAS officer Vivek Porwal in Bhopal’s high-security Char Imli area, next to the residence of Director General of Police Kailash Makwana, prompting a police investigation into a breach in one of the city’s most closely guarded residential zones.
According to police, the theft took place between 2 am and 3:15 am on Tuesday. The suspects entered the premises, cut down the tree and escaped with its middle stem, while leaving the branches and other parts behind. The theft was discovered on Tuesday morning, after which Habibganj police registered an investigation.
Habibganj station house officer Sanjeev Chouksey said CCTV footage showed three suspects in the area. Two of them allegedly entered the bungalow and felled the tree, while the third remained outside. Police are examining the footage to identify the suspects. There were allegations that the group arrived in a car, but police had not confirmed that detail.
Police commissioner Sanjay Kumar said multiple teams had been deployed to investigate the case. Investigators are also questioning people who had previously been accused of sandalwood theft to determine whether they were connected to the latest incident. CCTV recordings and other leads are being examined as part of the probe.
Char Imli houses senior IAS and IPS officers, politicians and other prominent residents. The latest incident has therefore drawn attention to security arrangements in government residential areas, where guarded entry points and official residences coexist with public roads, parks and boundary walls.
The theft also follows a series of reported incidents involving sandalwood trees and government properties in Bhopal. In December 2025, a sandalwood tree was found felled inside the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly premises, while two other trees had saw marks. Arera Hills police later arrested three men accused of entering the complex at night and cutting the trees.
In November 2025, suspected sandalwood smugglers allegedly cut six trees at the Gufa Mandir premises in Koh-e-Fiza. Three trees were taken away, while the remaining three were abandoned after a security guard noticed the activity, according to the report.
Char Imli and the nearby 74 Bungalows area have also recorded other alleged security breaches. These include the theft of jewellery from a deputy collector’s bungalow in November 2025, the snatching of mobile phones from a senior IPS officer and his wife in September 2025, and an attempted break-in at an additional chief secretary’s residence in January 2025.
Earlier cases included the burglary of a former minister’s bungalow in August 2024 and the theft of an LED television from a minister’s residence in the 74 Bungalows area in February 2021. Sandalwood trees were also allegedly stolen or targeted in Char Imli and 74 Bungalows in 2020.
Police teams are continuing to examine CCTV footage, question suspects and pursue other leads to identify those involved in the latest theft.
