Chittoor : Rs 5 crore worth red sanders seized, 4 smugglers held

Chittoor : District police arrested four red sanders smugglers and seized 11 tonnes of the precious wood worth Rs 5 crore. The arrested individuals have been identified as M Manoj Kumar, 27, M Ashok Kumar, 26, S Shankar, 27, and L Dayanand Naidu, 37.

Giving details of the seizure, district SP S Senthil Kumar told the media here on Monday that on August 1, Sunday, the police received a tip-off, prompting them to heighten surveillance on illegal red sanders transportation at Devarakonda village in the district.

As they started searching vehicles, a car coming from Devarakonda temple side tried to zoom past them. Police chased the vehicle and apprehended the driver, Naidu, to discover eight red sanders logs.

Following this, police registered a case at Bakarapeta police station and investigated the suspect.

Naidu told the police that four smugglers along with others have actually created a godown for stolen red sanders in Tamil Nadu. The smugglers set up the godown at Kannan farmhouse at tank factory, Avadi in Chennai.

On Monday morning, officials from the Chittoor police and the special enforcement bureau (SEB) swooped in on the godown where they found 11 tonnes of red sanders being readied to be smuggled overseas. They also arrested the four smugglers who have set up the godown.

In the raid, police seized 380 logs weighing 11 tonnes, one truck and a car.

The value of red sanders along with the seized vehicles is estimated to be Rs 5 crore, according to police.

According to police, Manoj Kumar, Ashok Kumar and Shankar are inter-state smugglers from Tamil Nadu while Naidu hails from Itepalli in Chittoor district.

The SP complimented Piler CI Murali Krishna, Bhakrapet SI Swetha, Rompicherla SI Hari Prasad, Yerravaripalyam SI Venkat Kumar, special branch SI Vikram , Ddisha police station CI Mohan and others for their role in the seizure. Special Enforcement Bureau director V Vidyasagar Naidu and others were present.