Task Force arrest 26 wood cutters

Tirupati: The Task Force arrested 26 persons and seized as many as 201 dressed Red Sanders logs weighing 6.67 tonnes. After the arrest of the driver and the cleaner of the lorry, the task force police came to know about two commission agents acting as mediators between the wood cutters and smugglers.

These two agents have been arrested by the task force. After a few hours, during interrogation, the task force came to know the modus operandi of smuggling of Red Sanders logs and the network. Speaking to media persons, SV Rajasekhar, Tirupati Urban SP, said that the Task Force has reliable information about the smuggling of Red Sanders logs two days ago and it took about two days to seize the stock of logs while loading into a lorry near Bhakarapet. Haleem aka Saleem of Chittoor town was behind the illegal transit of red sanders and search operations are on to nab the culprit at the earliest, the SP said.

All these Red Sanders logs were loaded into the lorry by concealing the entire stock with coconuts. All coconuts were packed in gunny bags and the logs were kept beneath these bags. With the revelations of the two commission agents, the police and task force have calculated the cost of the seized 201 red sanders logs to be Rs 2.18 crores in the international market. In another incident, the task force arrested 22 wood cutters while carrying dressed logs from forest. All these have been identified as natives of Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts of Tamil Nadu and seized 10 logs from their possession.