TIRUPATI: The Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) arrested four smugglers from Tamil Nadu and, later, seized 30 red sanders logs at Reddyvaripalle in KV Palli mandal in Chittoor district in the early hours of Tuesday.
The officials said vigilance across the western mandals had been raised as per the instruction of RSASTF in-charge P Ravisankar. As such, they were suspicious about smugglers’ movement in Marella of KV Palli mandal.
RSIs Vasu, Lingadhar and Ravikumar, along with their teams, began a combing operation on Monday night and observed that a car with registration number AP07 AV 6246 was roaming suspiciously at Reddyvaripalle around 2 am.
Not long after the vehicle was pulled over, the RSASTF personnel were attacked by the four smugglers, who were in the vicinity, with sticks and stones. Three RSASTF personnel were injured. The car was also seized.
The four arrested were identified as G Ramesh (25), K Jayaraman (30), C Annamalai (29) and P Sadayan (50). All of them hail from Jawwadimalai in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. With the information gathered from the smugglers, the task force personnel seized 30 red sanders logs.
The injured Task Force personnel were admitted to a nearby hospital. On receipt of information, CI Subramanyam and RIs Chandu and Murali reached the spot. Task Force SI Prasad registered a case.
Ravisankar said the task force had been focusing on smuggling activities at faraway places.