VELLORE: In what appeared like a scene straight from a police movie, a team of Andhra Pradesh cops descended on Saidapet in Vellore out of the blue on Sunday and caught a notorious red sanders smuggler at gun point right in his ‘den’ in full public view.
Since the four policemen attached to the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force were in plainclothes, the locals mistook them as belonging to S Sarathkumar’s (28) rival gang. As the cops rounded him up near a tea shop at Saidapet about 9:45 am, handcuffed him and tried to take him in their vehicle, the people in the locality to whom Sarathkumar and his operations were well known, took to their feet and blocked the road with two-wheelers.
They rang up the local police and informed that a gang attempted to kill Sarathkumar.
Within a few minutes, Vellore north police rushed to the spot and took both the cops and the youth to the station. Confirming that they belonged to the AP task force, the local cops facilitated the arrest of Sarathkumar and the team headed by inspector Athi Narayana took him into custody.
The AP police told mediapersons that Sarathkumar has been on the run for a couple of months. He and his gang were notorious for intercepting and hijacking the red sanders-laden trucks on the Andhra-Tamil Nadu border and selling the redwood in the national market.
“He has developed a strong network of informers at every level for carrying out the criminal activity. There are about 20 cases, including extortion and criminal intimidation, pending against him,” a senior officer in the task force said.
‘Schooled’ under notorious rowdy Athiradi Mahalingam, who was murdered near Thottapalayam in 2013, Sarathkumar, a native of Saidapet, came out on bail only two months ago, after Vellore south police arrested him on charges of abducting and murdering one Saravanan, nephew of folk artiste Mohanambal, and got him remanded. Saravanan was brutally murdered on November 25, 2016, after he was held captive for three days by a gang that demanded D2 crore ransom from his family. Sarathkumar is the prime accused in the case.
Notorious past
2012: Sarathkumar booked in robbery and assault cases at Katpadi and Vellore North police stations
2013: Sathuvacheri Police register case against him in connection with the murder of an auto driver
2016: Booked for the abduction and murder of Saravanan, a relative of Mohanambal
Between 2015 and 2017: Sarathkumar comes under lens of AP red sanders task force for several red sanders smuggling incidents
April 2017: Booked by AP task force police on charges of assaulting AP police while he was stealing a red sanders-laden truck