CHENNAI: It is almost public knowledge that this metro is the most important transit point for red sanders mafia and not a week passes by without a single seizure of smuggled wood in the suburbs. Yet, Chennai continues to be a safe haven as city police do not seem keen on tracking kingpins and do not go beyond arresting drivers and last-rung workers.
When asked about the progress in the cases of recent seizures of the smuggled wood in the city, police officers said they had not made further arrests.
This, despite the fact that some of the kingpins of the smuggling racket work from Chennai. Some of the persons caught in the racket have influential links too.
For example, last October, the New Washermenpet police arrested Krishnamurthy alias ‘Burma’ Murthy (49), brother of the owner of a famous textile shop at Thiruvottriyur High Road, and nearly 1.5 tonne wood kept hidden by him in a parking lot was recovered. Similarly, one Selvaraj, arrested by Andhra Pradesh police last year, is elder brother of a prominent Congress worker in Royapuram. But, there was not much progress in the investigation in these cases by the Chennai city police.
“It is an international racket and the persons are operating across the States. It will require huge manpower and expertise to trace them. With regular work in the station, it is impossible for us to trace the cross-border networks,” says an inspector of police.
Most of the city police officers believe that it is the prime responsibility of the Andhra Pradesh police as the “spot of crime” is in the neightbouring State.
Ultimately, the lethargic attitude only emboldens the kingpins of the racket who know for sure that police won’t reach their doorsteps and it would be only the last rung workers who would be getting caught.
Almost every arrest of a major kingpin was by the Andhra Pradesh police.