TIRUPATI: Tirupati Urban police have conducted a raid on a godown in the SIDCO industrial area in Tamil Nadu and seized 595 red sanders root stumps weighing 14.817 tonnes and arrested three inter-state smugglers having international contacts.Tirupati Urban SP Abhishek Mohanty presented the arrested smugglers and seized logs at the Armed Reserve Grounds here on Thursday evening. Interestingly, all the seized red sanders are root stumps and some of them are carved into beads, cubes and small sticks.
According to the SP, Yerpedu police arrested B Srinivasulu of Tirupati and one from Nellore along with seven others on Tuesday. Yerpedu SI Venkata Ramana also seized 655 kg of 21 red sanders logs, a Bolero and a maxi truck.Based on the information provided by Srinivasulu and the rest, the Tirupati Urban police sent a special team to Tamil Nadu. The team conducted the raid on a godown in Vichoor panchayat of Mannali Taluk in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu.
The godown belongs to international red sanders smuggler Beeda Raffi alias Beeda Rafeeque. Kannan, who had given the godown to smuggler Raffeque, and Kannan’s son Karthik were also arrested by the Tirupati police during the raid, along with smuggler Abdul Rajak alias Basha. “Some more people are involved in the case and we are investigating the matter,” the SP said.