Cops from Andhra Pradesh arrested a former air hostess and model from a south Calcutta apartment on Wednesday in connection with red sandalwood smuggling.

Police got to know about Sangeeta Chatterjee while interrogating Markondan Lakshman alias Tamang, arrested last week in Hyderabad on the charge of smuggling red sandalwood, an officer from Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor said.

Tamang has a smuggling network in Myanmar, Nepal and China, he said.

Investigations showed Chatterjee met Tamang at a party in Calcutta a few years ago. She helped him expand his network by establishing contacts in Calcutta, Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, the officer claimed.

"Tamang frequently visited Calcutta as he had some contacts here.

"When he met Chatterjee, she was modelling for television commercials. She later became an air hostess," he said.

"She not only helped Tamang get more agents in Calcutta, but also helped him establish contacts in other metros."

A police team from Chittoor and Panchasayar (in Calcutta) raided her second-floor flat in a multi-storeyed housing complex behind Peerless Hospital, off the Bypass, on Wednesday evening.

Chatterjee, in her 30s, was living with her father for six months. She was produced in Alipore court on Thursday and cops from Chittoor sought her transit remand.

The court, however, granted her interim bail and ordered her to appear before a Chittoor court on May 18.

The Chittoor officer claimed that Tamang and Chatterjee had channelled substantial sums of money through hawala.

"The woman possibly knows the locations of Tamang's godowns where he has stocked red sandalwood," he said.

The importance of Calcutta in the smuggling of red sanders is evident in the huge amount of the sandalwood seized at the airport and in adjoining areas over the past two years, a city police officer said.

China and Myanmar are the preferred destinations of smugglers because of the high demand for red sandalwood, he said.