Four Red Sanders smugglers nabbed from hideout

Tirupati: On a tipoff, the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) personnel have swooped down on the hideout and nabbed four red sanders smugglers on Thursday.

According to RSASTF IG M Kantha Rao, when cops cordoned an isolated house near Chaitanyapuram under the limits of Tiruchanur panchayat and asked them to surrender, smugglers resisted by attacking cops with knives and throwing liquor bottles towards them.

The accused were identified as K Suresh (34), S Karthik (20) of Dharmapuri district, R Devarajan (42) and P Shakti (26) of Salem district. All of them belong to Tamil Nadu state. Speaking to the media, the IG said Suresh is working as pilot for vehicles smuggling red sanders logs and remaining them are involved in cutting of red sanders trees and smuggling.

He stated that all the four have confessed to committing crime and they came to Tirupati to conduct recce on smuggling of red sanders logs. Task force DSP Venkata Ramana, RSI Vasu and 10 armed police personnel were involved in arresting the smugglers.