Kothagudem cops seize 15 quintals of fake cotton seeds

Kothagudem: In a serious crackdown on fake seed sellers, the Kothagudem police on Monday seized 15 quintals of fake cotton seeds worth Rs 33 lakh from 15 persons of an inter-State fake seed gang. The seized fake seeds were packed in 3,000 packets.

Addressing the media in Kothagudem on Monday, Superintendent of Police Sunil Dutt said on May 24, based on a tip off, a team of police and Agriculture Department officials raided the house of a farmer at Tekulapally and seized spurious cotton seeds worth Rs 5,500.

As two more farmers at Tekulapally complained about spurious seeds, the police launched an investigation into the case. On Sunday, Tekulapally police arrested Sangu Suresh at Sulanagar, Eluri Ravi of Sai Balaji Enterprises at Gangapuram, Vinodarao Seetharamaiah at Karukonda Ramavaram and seized 300 spurious cotton seed packets from their possession.

Based on the information provided by the arrested persons during the interrogation, the police and Agriculture officers raided the shop and warehouse of the main accused Mannem Laxminarayana at Kamalanagar in Mansoorabad of LB Nagar in Hyderabad, the SP Dutt informed.

He informed that cotton seed packets whose date has been expired, a packing machine, empty fake seed covers and bio-products manufactured at his licenced Tapasya Agri-Tech Company, all worth Rs 70 lakh have been seized.

Cases against Laxminarayana and Vinodarao Seetharamaiah and others have been booked. The other accused were identified as Nanabala Bhaskar of Sulanagar of Tekulapally mandal, Alli Vidya Sagar of Cherla, Chinta Venkata Nagireddy and Badam Nagireddy of Laxmipuram of Burgampahad, Vankacherla Leela Prasad, Dasari Ramana Reddy, Pothula Vishweswar Rao of Dummugudem, Kailsa Venkateswarlu of Aswapuram, Kaliveti Sambashivarao, Yasa Nageswar Rao and Gade Peddi Reddy.