Telangana: 13 Persons Arrested For Selling Fake Seeds In Nalgonda District

Although the government is attacking and filing cases, some of the criminals are constantly cheating the public by selling fake seeds and especially cheating farmers. The Telangana government, which has set up a special task force with the start of the Kharif season, has warned that it will implement the PD Act if it sells fake seeds. Occasional attacks are being made by the officials too.

Police have recently nabbed a gang who are selling fake seeds in the Suryapeta district. Recently, another large quantity of fake seeds was seized in the Nalgonda district. The task force police along with farmers in several parts of the district have recently carried out raids. Authorities arrested 13 people in connection with this issue. Rs. 6 crores worth of fake rice, cotton, maize and vegetable seeds were seized. The police, who registered a case in this regard, focused on where the fake seeds were coming from and to the district. It is learned that fake seeds are being supplied to Nalgonda from the border districts of Andhra Pradesh.

West Zone IG Stephen Ravindra said the Nalgonda task force had been conducting an in-depth investigation into the fake seeds affair for 15 days, according to the information given to the police by several farmers from the Devarakonda area. Thirteen accused have been arrested for selling fake seeds. Among those arrested was Madhusudan Reddy, a Karnataka native from Nandyal, who had earlier arrested and sent to Warangal Jail under the PD Act in a similar case. After his release from jail, Peddireddy of Khammam, Balaswamy of Chandur in Nalgonda district, Pitchaya of Devarakonda, Srinivas Reddy of Hyderabad, along with Pawan and a few others planned to make fake cotton seeds and sell them in various districts of Telangana this season.

According to the information provided by the accused during the interrogation, searches were carried out at Gajwel in Siddipet, Nandyala in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, Allagadda, Gadwala in Telangana, Jadcharla in Mahabubnagar district, Gundla Pochampally in Hyderabad and Medchal districts, Yallampeta, Devara Yanjal, Boinapalli and other places. 40 tons of maize seeds and four quintals of vegetable seeds were seized.

The main accused in the case, Srinivas Reddy, a chartered accountant from Mahbubnagar district, had set up a company under the name Southwest Seeds in Gundla Pochampally in Medchal district and was operating a fake seed business with the same name, the IG said. Srinivas Reddy has been collecting paddy, maize and vegetable seeds from farmers at low prices for the last four years. He said he would process them in processing units without complying with any quality standards and even sell the seeds without packaging, printing and selling the seeds packing covers, QR code and other labels on them without a license.

He said he used thinner to erase expiration dates and print new dates and sell them. Srinivas Reddy's partner Madishetti Govind, who was interrogated at the Angi Agritech processing unit in Devarayanjal on the processing of fake cotton seeds, was introduced by Srinivas Reddy to Gorukanti Pawan Kumar of Nandyal, through whom Madhusudan Reddy, an old criminal from Nandyal, was introduced.

According to IG Stephen Ravindra, the police found that Srinivas Reddy had taken rejected seeds, expired seeds and cotton seeds from ginning mills, processed them in his processing unit, printed the Truthful labels, packed them in beautiful covers and sent them to the market. Another prime accused Madhusudan Reddy, who has been arrested several times in fake seed cases since 2016, went to jail last year under the PD Act and explained that he was doing the same business again. Gosha Swamidas, Dubba Venkata Shivareddy, Hussain Wali alias Basha, Bandaru Sudhakar and others from Nandyala used to buy seeds for Rs. 200 and sell them for Rs 900 per kg (half kg Rs 450) to the farmers.

His follower Chennakeshava Reddy said that he was transporting these with the help of Madhu. Another accused from Nandyal, Gorukanti Pawan Kumar, who has been jailed in several cases, said he was dealing with the main accused in the commission by trading fake seeds. Another accused who is absconding in the case, and wife Rajitha of the main accused Srinivas Reddy, is the coordinator of the Southwest Seeds partner, IG said. He lauded the district police for cleverly cracking the case.

The gang has selected several areas including Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Khammam, Warangal and Rangareddy districts where crops are mostly grown. Attempts were made to sell fake seeds in two Telugu states. Srinivas Reddy explained that he was printing a brand image on fake seeds without a license and permission to sell them and used to use the brand image of a Nagpur-based ICAR company to convince farmers that the fake seeds he was selling were of good quality.