Three youth were arrested on charges of smuggling red sanders, weighing around 400 kg, near Maruthalam railway gate in Walajapet police station limit on Thursday morning.
The three-member team of highway patrol, manning the State Highway between Walajapet and Sholinghur, conducted a vehicle check at Maruthalam junction, following a direction from the SP of Vellore P Vijayakumar.
During the vehicle check, SSI J Margan asked a car bearing a Karnataka registration number, heading towards Walajapet, to stop but the driver sped away. The patrol team, acted swiftly, and chased the car.
Within 200 metres from Maruthalam junction, the trio in the car, later identified as A Babu (30) and N Saleem of Mallur in KGF in Karnataka and T Pradeep Kumar (24) of Arcot, abandoned the car at the railway gate and took to their heels.
SSI Margan, head constable T Dhakshinamurthy and constable V Gopi chased and caught the trio. After arresting them, the police conducted a check. “The back seat was removed to smuggle the red sander logs,” said a police personnel.
The team handed over the trio to the Walajapet Police, who transferred the case to the forest department. “We inquired Babu and two others. Based on the information from them, we conducted check in Pathmapuram in Sholinghur and found four logs of red sanders,” said a forest official. A case was registered. “We are interrogating them to get specific information about their network and origin of the red sander logs,” said the official.