3-member gang held, truck seized in Nellore

Nellore: Krishnapatnam police arrested a three-member gang who duped authorities of the Coromandel Fertilisers with fake truck numbers and decamped with stock of potash. Police arrested them at BP Agraharam of Srikalahasti mandal on Sunday and seized the truck.

According to Rural DSP KV Raghava Reddy, M Chandramouli and P Damodaram from Chittoor district and Venkateshappa Srikanth from Kolar in Karnataka formed as a team. Chandramouli earlier worked as a teacher and was retrenched from the services due to his criminal behaviour.

This year on Oct 27, they went to Krishnapatnam Port yard with truck number AP27 TZ 2275, instead of AP07 TH 6316, and collected load of potash from the Coromandel warehouse in the Port and left for Jogulamba Gadwal district in Telangana. But the truck had not reached the destination as was scheduled. Transporter called the driver's number and it was switched off.

Then, they contacted the owner of the truck at Singarayakonda in Prakasam district who informed that they were not aware of the consignment. The gang members initially transported the potash load to Punganur in Chittoor district, but they failed to sell the fertiliser there. Finally, they unloaded the stock at Gadwal and fled from the place.

In a similar crime in August, they had lifted a load of sugar from a factory in Chittoor and sold out for Rs. 10 lakhs. Chittoor police booked a case against them and have been searching for the accused. Krishnapatnam police arrested them on Sunday at BP Agraharam and seized the truck worth Rs. 20 lakhs.