Gang selling spurious cotton seeds held in Hyderabad

A four-member gang selling spurious cotton seeds was arrested by the Special Operations Team (SOT), LB Nagar zone on Thursday. Around 39 bags totalling two tonnes of seeds worth Rs 50 lakh, seed processing machine, two seed packing machines, a van and 76,700 empty seed packing covers of various brands were seized from them.

Acting on a tip-off, the SOT sleuths along with the officials of agriculture department and Kandukur police conducted a raid on the outskirts of Kandukuru village of Rangareddy district and arrested the gang while they were transporting the spurious cotton seeds to sell to farmers.

The police said that Manyam Lakshminarayana, a native of Jogulamba-Gadwal district and is a resident of Nagole was selling banned cotton seeds by establishing a processing unit Thapasya agro tech at Laxminagar in Uppal. Lakshminarayana has no license to manufacture or sell the seeds under seed act 1966.

He used to obtain the loose seed from Nandyal in Kurnool district and reprocess it at his unit and pack the spurious seeds under the names of various brands. He would then sell them to the farmers by transporting them to different areas.