6 smugglers held, one tonne red sanders seized

Kadapa (YSR district): Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force personnel arrested six smugglers and recovered 32 red sanders logs weighing more than one tonne worth Rs 50 lakh in two separate incidents and two cars from their possession on Thursday.

The accused were identified as T Venkadesan, 26, Hari, 46, Ponnu Swamy Sarath, 19, Chinnaraji Pachayyapan, 20, Nadipayyan Mani, 50, of Jamunamuthur taluq of Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu, K C Vijayakumar, 33, of Kota in Chittor district.

Addressing a press conference at Task Force police station in Tirupati on Thursday, DSP Chenchu Babu said that three teams headed by RI Suresh Kumar Reddy, and RI Chiranjeevulu launched combing operations in Sanipaya forest area on Wednesday.

During the combing operations cops noticed some people loading the red sanders logs in a car in Seshachalam reserve forest. He said police surrounded the smugglers and recovered 10 logs and a car, one cycle from them.

He said that in another incident, police identified some people carrying red sanders logs at Vanarachapalle forest area and recovered 22 logs and arrested three persons.

The DSP said that a few people involved in the incident managed to escape from the spot leaving the red sanders logs behind them.

He said in the third incident, police -identified a car without driver at Mamumduru village of Renigunta mandal Tirupati district and seized it on Thursday.

The DSP said that during the investigation, it was revealed that the smugglers were using the Tamil Nadu vehicles with AP number plates for illegal transportation of red sanders from Andhra Pradesh.

Tirupati Task Force police registered a case and are investigating.