Tirupati: Cops seize worth Rs 7-cr red sanders logs, arrest 11 smugglers

Tirupati/Narayanavanam: District police and Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) personnel in separate operations seized Rs 7 crore worth red sanders logs and 11 smugglers involved in the crime on Thursday.

In the first incident, Vadamalapeta police seized 191 red sanders logs worth Rs 4 crore and eight gunny bags of wooden blocks weighing about 3 tonne and arrested five smugglers, including a most wanted one, at a circle near SV Puram toll plaza.

They also seized an Ashok Layland goods carrier and a Maruti Suzuki car with Tamil Nadu registration numbers.

Producing the arrested persons before media at Narayanavanam police station, Tirupati district SP P Parameswar Reddy said they had received a tip-off about smuggling of a huge quantity of red sanders logs. Following his instructions, a team comprising Puttur Rural CI M Suresh Kumar, Sathyavedu CI N Siva Kumar Reddy, Vadamalapeta SI E Eswaraiah, head constables Ramana Reddy, Gangi Reddy, constables Somasekhar, Syamsundar, Sathya, Lokanadam, Jagadish Kumar, Crime team constables Somasekhar, Naresh Kumar, Uday Kumar, Damu and Muneyya conducted vehicle checks near SV Puram toll plaza during which they intercepted a lorry.

The SP said the lorry driver tried to turn the vehicle back but the police team acting swiftly surrounded the vehicle in which they found three tonne red sanders logs and five persons. The police team arrested the five smugglers belonging to Tamil Nadu after seizing the logs and two vehicles, a lorry and a car, he said and added that the arrested were identified as Karapaiah Senthil Kumar (42) of Pudikottai district, Devan Nagaraju (44) of Yerannavuru in Chennai, Vaidyalingam Sarangapani (64) of Red Hills in Chennai, K Nazeer Bhasha (54) of Yennuru of Chennai and Nanni Muthuraman (50) of Pudukottai district.

Police interrogation revealed that Karapaiah Senthil Kumar was most wanted smuggler who had a nexus with international smugglers, the SP said and added that Senthil supplies logs to Chennai and Bangalore from where they would be transported to China.

Parameswar Reddy said they are continuing their investigation based on the information given by the arrested person to find the kingpins behind the illegal trade. He announced rewards for the personnel involved in the operation, including constables and home guards. Additional SP E Supraja, Puttur DSP TD Yaswanth, in-charge DSP D Kondaiah and others were present.

In the second incident, Task Force personnel in three separate incidents seized 127 red sanders logs along with two cars and three motorcycles and arrested six smugglers . Addressing media after producing the arrested smugglers at Task Force office in Tirupati, SP Meda Sundar Rao said two combing teams led by RIs Ali Bhasha and Suresh Kumar Reddy started combing during which they found two persons at a mango orchard near Sathyavedu and arrested them. After the interrogation, the SP said the combing team seized 54 red logs. The arrested were identified as Karimullah (55) and Sayed (36) of Gummadipudi in Tamil Nadu.

In an another incident, he said the combing team arrested two smugglers, Nanimela Ravikuar (25) and Nanimela Chiranjeevi (22) belonging to Karnimitta village in Nelavai mandal and recovered 12 red sanders logs from them while another team seized 61 logs at Jangamala Konda Vaddipalle Cheruvu in Chinnagottigallu mandal and arrested Sarvesam (33) and D Maathu (34) of Tirupatturu district of Tamil Nadu .

The SP revealed that the combing teams also seized two cars and three motor cycles from the arrested smugglers in three separate incidents. Rao said the seized logs weighed 2,811 kg and valued about Rs 3 crore. DSP Murali Dhar and other officials were present.