Vijayawada: 6-member gang arrested, fake pesticides seized

Vijayawada: In a major breakthrough the Task Force busted a gang who manufacture fake pesticides and promotes in the state. The gang operates from Guntur and sell the fake pesticides in different parts of the state. City Task Force police arrested gang of six members and seized fake pesticides and fake plant growth promoters worth Rs4.50 crore on Tuesday.

As per the instructions of the commissioner of police B Srinivasulu the Task Force team conducted a raid near Netaji bridge and arrested two persons Kotari Praveen Kumar and Kotari Nageswara Rao of Guntur and seized fake fertilizers and fake growth promoters. The duo was transporting fake pesticides and growth promoters in a car bearing number AP07BW 2428 and were caught near Netaji bridge.

On information furnished by the two, the police arrested four more persons in connection with manufacturing and sale of fake pesticides and growth promoters. The other four accused are NagulramRamu of Pedakakani, Guntur district, NagularamLakshminarayana, working as manager of Syngenta agro chemicals, Guntur, Abdul Kareem, Gandhi Nagar, Guntur and Gadipudi Venkata Sivarama Anand Kumar of Guntur.

Commissioner of Police B Srinivasulu said two main accused in the case are Nagulram Ramu and NagularamLakshminarayana of Pedakakani, Guntur district.

The two brothers used to work in a pesticide manufacturing company in Guntur. One of the brothers Ramu quit the job some time ago and started manufacturing fake pesticide unit in Auto Nagar, Guntur and marketing the products.

The elder brother Lakshminarayana has been working as the manager of Syngenta agro chemicals in Guntur.

Ramu used to buy chemicals in Hyderabad for the manufacturing of fake pesticides in Auto Nagar, Guntur. He used to buy empty bottles from another accused Sivarama Ananda Kumar and gets labels from Abdul Kareem, who produced the labels of reputed company.

Kothari Praveen Kumar and Kothari Nageswara Rao used to transport the fake pesticides. The gang cleverly managed the sale and supply of fake pesticides with the labels of reputed company Syngenta Agro chemicals, Guntur.

Lakshminarayana as the manager of the company has to replace the damaged stocks and loose stocks and transports to the traders and dealers.

He cleverly uploaded the fake pesticides manufactured by his brother in Auto Nagar and distributed to the traders and dealers in the State. Farmers unaware of the fake pesticides used to suffer loss. The duplicate pesticides were sold with the label of reputed company.

Under the supervision of Task Force ADCP K V Srinivasa Rao, the Task Force team ACP VSN Verma, inspector P Krishna Mohan and other staff participated in the raid. The ADCP said these fake pesticides are harmful to the crops and farmers suffer huge loss if they use them.

Seized fake pesticides and plant growth promoters