Kadapa cops arrest 5 key red sanders smugglers

Kadapa: In a major breakthrough, Kadapa police arrested five red sanders smugglers, including an international smuggler, and recovered 37 red sanders logs weighing 1,059 kg, four vehicles and five mobiles, all worth Rs 1.05 crores, from their possession.

The accused were identified as Aniacut Babu alias Murugeshan Babu, 45, an international smuggler Balglamedu village Aniacut taluk of Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. T Sudhakar Rao, 30, of Leninnagar Housing Colony, B Satya,25, pf Obannapalle Colony , Sk Hyder Ali, of Vinayakapuram of Chittoor town and Sheik Munna, 38, of Kummari Kunta of Kadapa town.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, district SP Babujee Attada said that in the recent past Kadapa police had arrested international smugglers like Sethumadhavan, Arcot Bhai,of Tamil Nadu.  During the interrogation, they confessed about their nexus with some other international smugglers like Murugeshan Babu, Srinivasulu Naidu of Chennai and some others.

In this connection, following a tip-off, police conducted surprise raids at Nagulapalle crossroads near Mydukur and detained the five offenders on Thursday morning.  The SP said among them, Murugeshan Babu was the most wanted international smuggler. The SP said that the Tamil Nadu forest department had registered six cases against him from 1992 to 2010 for sandal wood smuggling.

He entered into red sanders smuggling during 2010.  The SP appreciated the police personnel for their acumen and efficiency in arresting the notorious red sanders smugglers and declared rewards for them.