TIRUPATI: Bhakarapet Circle police nabbed interstate red sanders smuggling gang of 13 members and seized 21 red sanders logs worth Rs 71 lakh. The police also seized one four-wheeler and six motorbikes from their possession on Sunday.
The prime accused was identified as Gundala Shankar (42), Veemula Srinivasulu (34) and Dudekula Baba Saheb (42), belonging to Annamayya and Tirupati districts.
Disclosing the case details to media persons, Tirupati SP P Parameswara Reddy said, "acting on a tip-off, Bhakarapet CI Tulasi Ram, SIs Venkatesh and Prakash conducted raids at 4 pm on Saturday near Anjaneya Swamy temple at Sai Kada Gutta in Bodavandla Palli village of Yerravaripalem Mandal and arrested the interstate smuggling gang. The SP said among the 13 arrested, 10 belonged to Tamil Nadu while three accused are from Andhra Pradesh. “The 10 Tamil Nadu smugglers used to tamper their vehicles’ number plates after entering AP,” the SP added.
The SP informed that while 13 accused were arrested on the spot, two others identified as Thanji and Govindaraj from Vellore and Tiruvannamalai are still at large. The preliminary probe conducted by the police revealed that the two, who are at large would bring woodcutters from Tamil Nadu and cut red sanders trees in the Seshachalam forest.