TIRUPATI: In a major breakthrough, the Chittoor police have seized a huge haul of red sanders logs worth around Rs six crore after conducting simultaneous raids in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu on Sunday and Monday. They also arrested two notorious smugglers Soundara Rajan and Saravanan alias Madras Saravanan. A 40-member police from Chittoor district, with the cooperation of the local police in both the states, seized about 12.5-tonne logs. In West Bengal, the police conducted raids and seized the logs after unearthing two red sander dumps in Hasimara, on the borders of West Bengal and Bhutan and arrested Soundara Rajan, a Tamilian who settled in Myanmar and is engaged in smuggling.
Another police team raided three more dumps in Gandhi Nagar and Avadi in Chennai and seized a large number of logs and arrested Saravanan.When contacted, Chittoor SP G Srinivas said acting on credible information that smugglers were maintaining a godown in West Bengal, the police raided the same and arrested Soundararajan and seized 8 tonnes of logs. “The accused was already produced in a court in West Bengal and we are bringing him to the district on a transit warrant,” he said.
On the Chennai raid, he said based on information after investigating a case registered under the Gudipala police limits, they learnt about the red sander godowns in Chennai and conducted raids. After seizing 4.5 tonnes of logs, the police arrested Saravanan. Stating that steps are on for bringing the seized logs to the district, he said all the other accused behind the godowns in West Bengal and Chennai will also be arrested soon.