Tirupati: 13 red-sanders smugglers arrested, 52 logs seized

Tirupati: The Red-sander Anti-smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) personnel on Friday seized 52 red-sander logs and two vehicles besides arresting 13 smugglers -11 from Tamil Nadu and two locals. Police arrested them near the railway truck at Srinivasamangapuram, 15 km from here. Acting on credible information received by Task Force in-charge P Ravi Sankar, three teams of task force started combing operation from three points between Srivarimettu and Alipiri on Thursday evening.

Near Srinivasa Managampuram, they spotted two vehicles parked near the railway track and 50-60 smugglers carrying red-sander logs on their heads and loading them in the vehicles.

Task Force team equipped with fire arms surrounded the smugglers and warned them to surrender, but the smugglers started attacking the force with stones.

Later, the smugglers fled into forests leaving behind the red-sander logs. However, the Task Force personnel were able to capture 13 smugglers including two locals who were identified as G Venu of Satyanarayanapuram locality in the city and Chevireddy Nethaji of Perur village near Tirupati.

The smugglers who are from various places in Tiruvannamalai and Vellore districts of TN identified as Annamalai, Mani, Prakash, Vellaian, Ravi, Samikannu, Jaipal, Vijayakumar, Jayaram, Karthik and Satyavel.

Additional forces rushed from Tirupati to support the force who intensified the combing to track down the escaped smugglers.