Suryapet police bust fake seeds racket

Suryapet: District police have arrested a six-member gang for cheating innocent farmers by selling spurious seeds to them. They seized 986 kgs of fake seeds worth Rs 13.5 crore and two cars from their possession.

District Collector T Vinay Krishna Reddy and SP Bhaskaran in a joint press meet disclosed the details of the spurious seeds racket here on Thursday. SP Bhaskaran said that Moolapati Shiva Reddy, native of Vanasthalipuram of Hyderabad, has been running a company 'Dwaraka Seeds' for the past few months. With the experience of working in various seeds companies in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Indore earlier, Shiva Reddy started a company and manufacturing fake seeds of chilli, tomato, coriander, watermelon etc and labelled them as hybrid seeds, without having lab center, labels and quality certificate.

Kodad police found spurious seeds in Chintalapalem mandal in the district on Wednesday and conducted an in-depth investigation and cracked the racket, the SP stated. He informed that Shiva Reddy also set up fake seeds companies in Mahabubabad, Sujatanagar, Vatsavai and Wyra areas and running business by employing dealers.

Suryapeta district police have arrested Dwaraka Seeds accountant Yadagiri, regional manager Lakshma Reddy and dealers appointed by Shiva Reddy - Pratap Kumar, Jaganmohan Rao and Ramana.

District Collector Vinay Krishna Reddy stated that Shiva Reddy used to pack fake seeds in a house at Vanasthalipuram in Hyderabad and supply them to various places through his agents. The Collector warned of taking strict action against those, who sells spurious seeds in the district and PD Act would be imposed against the accused.

Meanwhile, Suyapet district police busted two gangs dealing in spurious seeds and arrested seven members of the gang two days ago. They seized 29.2 quintals cotton seeds worth Rs 70 lakh from their possession.