The Chittoor Police on Sunday slapped the Preventive Detention (PD) Act on three red sanders smugglers and shifted them to Rajahmundry Central Jail.
ASP (Red sanders operations) V. Ratna produced the trio - M. Narayana (26) of Irala mandal; Rangamandhadi Narasimhulu (45) of Chittoor rural mandal and Abdul Mazeed (36) of Chittoor - before the media here.
The accused confessed of smuggling 400 tonnes of red sanders worth more than Rs. 100 crore during the last five years.
Investigation revealed that the trio owned landed property and vehicles worth crores of rupees. One of them, Narasimhulu, was arrested in 2010 under the PD Act.
Ms. Ratna said lodging of all accused under the PD Act in one jail at Rajahmundry was giving them a “morale boost”.
She added: “We are studying options to lodge them at different jails, which will fulfil guidelines on accommodating under-trials in jails under the PD Act. At present, 22 detainees under the PD Act are from Chittoor. During mulakats and court hearing sessions, many of them are grouping together, sending wrong signals to the people. We will soon deal with this issue.”
