Red sanders logs worth 53 lakh seized; 7 held

Nellore: The Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force team arrested 7 smugglers at Marripadu, Duttalur and Venkatagiri areas on Friday after conducting simultaneous raids and seized 529 kg of 45 red sander logs worth Rs 53 lakh and eight mobile phones from their possession.

The accused were identified as Kalvakollu Rajaiah, 39, A Ravidass, 37, P Chinna Mani, 53, M Manoj Kumar, 21, Rapur Rajesh, 25, Vemula Vasu, 42, and Dileep Kumar Jain, 58. According to OSD (crimes) T P Vithaleswar, the Task Force team conducted simultaneous raids in Marripadu, Duttalur and Venkatagiri areas.

Accused Ravidass hails from Marudhu Pandi Nagar in Red Hills in Chennai city, Chinna Mani from New Washermanpet in Tondiyarpet in Chennai, Manoj Kumar from Red Hills and Dileep Kumar Jain from Kundithopu in Chennai were involved in smuggling in the district.

Meanwhile three local smugglers K Rajaiah, R Rajesh and V Vasu also supported the inter-state smugglers for transportation of red sanders smuggling. The OSD said that when they tried to arrest smugglers, they attacked the task force personnel by pelting stones on the team.

Police seized 16 red sanders logs weighing 172 kg and nabbed 2 smugglers in Venkatagiri. They seized 15 red sanders logs weighing 188 kg and 6 mobile phones and nabbed 3 accused in Duttalur mandal.

The team also seized 14 red sanders logs weighing 169 kg and arrested 2 smugglers. The OSD informed they had filed 34 cases last year and nabbed 481 local, inter-state and international smugglers. The senior police officer said they had seized red sanders logs worth Rs 16 crore last year.

The Task Force team seized 1 tonne of red sanders logs and nabbed 22 inter-state and local smugglers this year, he said and added they had filed 6 cases against smugglers across the district this year.

Atmakur DSP Ramanjaneya Reddy, Venkatagiri SI K Kondapa Naidu, Duttalur SI N Srinivasa Rao and Marripadu SI Shaik Abdul Razak were present.