Hyderabad: cops nab 19 of red soil mafia

Hyderabad: The Special Operations Team (SOT) of Malkajgiri zone along with Jawahar Nagar police on Sunday night laid a trap at Thimmaially village in Keesara mandal and arrested 19 persons for illegally smuggling the red soil from government lands. The main accused was identified as Tirupati Yadav, who was arrested along with other conspirators. Thirteen tipper lorries and 1 Hitachi Excavator was also seized from the spot.

The Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda, Mahesh Bhagwat said that the accused person is a native of Thimmaipally village where the government lands exist which have red soil in them.

He said, "Upon witnessing such lands, the accused person collaborated with other lorry drivers and lured them into his trap by promising them huge returns. Once they all formed a gang, they started digging the red soil from government lands and sold it in the market at Rs 2,000 per ton. A lorry would accommodate 20 tons so they earned Rs 20,000 for each lorry on a single trip."

"The accused gang excavated the soil mostly during night after 2 am and used to carry out the works till 5 am. They also made sure that they do not carry out their works on regular days as they did the excavation only on Sundays and public holidays and they were carrying out such illegal activities from past six months," informed the officer.

"However, their activities were tipped off to us. Upon receiving the information, the sleuths of SOT and cops of Jawahar Nagar laid a trap and nabbed the gang. All of them were arrested and booked under section 447, 427, 379, 420 r/w 34 of IPC, section 21 of MMDR Act 1957, section 3 of PDPP Act of PS Jawahar Nagar and remanded to judicial custody," added the Commissioner.