Huge red sanders dump unearthed in Vijayawada

• 30 tonnes of logs worth Rs.50 cr seized fromVijayawada
• 43 operatives held, logs worth of Rs.3 core seized in Srikalahasti
• Red sanders valued at Rs.4.5 lakh confiscated in Badvel

Vijayawada/Tirupati/Badvel: The Chittoor police aided by the Vijayawada police on Monday busted a big red sanders smuggling racket. About 30 tonnes of logs worth Rs 50 crore were seized from a godown in Autonagar,
Vijayawada.

The Chittoor police nabbed Naresh Reddy, a native of Rayachoti at Tirupati. Armed with information extracted from him on the dump, the police raided a godown at Vijayawada in the morning. Its owner Narayana Rao was learnt to have been paid three months rent by the smugglers. He was not aware of the hoarding. Chittoor Task Force ACP Giridhar led the raid.

In another major operation, a Task Force team took into custody 43 operatives, including woodcutters, coolies, drivers and driver-cum-pilots near Srikalahasthi. Acting on a tip-off, they launched a search of vehicles in Srikalahasthi on Sunday night leading to the arrest of smugglers along with vehicles transporting red sanders to Tamil Nadu. Nine cars, five motorcycles and 78 red sanders logs were seized, all worth Rs 3 crore.

Task Force OSD Iliyas Basha told the media in Tirupati that the arrested persons included two most wanted Karnataka-based smugglers involved in smuggling from Chittoor district to other States for export. They were S Sadiq (29) and Pathan Inayatullah (46). Increased number of arrests of smugglers and seizures of vehicles carrying logs from Srikalahasthi reveals their change of route to Tamil Nadu. Hitherto, they have been taking the Tirupati-Chittoor route.

Meanwhile, the Badvel police in Kadapa arrested five smugglers and seized six red sanders logs worth Rs 4.5 lakh near Atlur crossroads on Monday. A car was also seized. Surprisingly, its driver showed the ID card of a press reporter.