Cyberabad SOT bust prohibited cotton seed racket

Hyderabad: The sleuths of the Cyberabad Special Operations Team (SOT), Medchal, and Shamirpet police, along with the officials of the Agricultural Department, apprehended two persons involved in illegally transporting prohibited cotton seeds. The police seized 1.2 tons of prohibited (BG-III/HT) cotton seeds and 1,560 kg of onion bags used to conceal them, for a total worth of Rs 30 lakh.

The arrested persons were Gaddam Srikanth (38) and Goshika Naveen Kumar (31) both working as drivers. Shivaiah, alias Siddaiah, Pindi Suresh, and an unknown person who supplies prohibited seeds are absconding.

According to the police, the respondents, Gaddam Srikanth and Naveen Kumar, work as professional drivers. Shivaiah and Suresh Yadav, a vehicle owner, each paid Rs 5,000 for a trip. The drivers were sent to Kushtagi town in the Koppal district of Karnataka to transport seeds to Mandamarri in the Mancherial district of Telangana.

The police said, as per the instructions of Shivaiah and Suresh, an unknown person approached them and took their empty vehicle and returned with 1.2 tons of BG-III cotton seeds along with 1,560 kg of onion bags, which were used to conceal the seed bags. The load was set up to resemble an onion load to avoid police checks.

During the investigation, they confessed to having visited the same place on April 14 and transported the similar quantity of seeds on April from the same person and handed it over to them.