CHITTOOR: Chittoor district police have seized 359 red sander logs worth Rs 10 crore, arrested seven smugglers and seized four vehicles on Thursday. The accused were identified as P Nagaraju (40), A Ramaraju (23), G Prabhu (23), S Vijay Kumar (21), A Sampath (32), K Appa Swamy (35), K Dora Raj (32).
According to Chittoor SP S Senthil Kumar, the police, under the supervision of SEB ASP Rishanth Reddy, have intensified vehicular checking in the district. As part of this, a police team led by Gudipala SI Prasad conducted vehicular checking at Golla Madugu sand check-post on the Chittoor-Vellore highway, when they arrested seven red sanders smugglers.
The SP said the police team, lay in wait near the check-post, when the seven accused were sighted ferrying the red sanders logs in Tata Sumos. The police pounced on them and took them into custody and seized the vehicle.
Based on the information provided by the accused, the police learnt about the huge haul of red sanders logs dumped clandestinely at a retreat centre in Valarpuram in Sriperumbudur of Tamil Nadu. The SP immediately formed police teams led by Inspectors Srinivasulu Reddy, Vikram and Raja Sekhar and ordered them to conduct raids on the retreat centre.