Mydukur sub-divisional police arrested 31 woodcutters/smugglers of Tamil Nadu and three APSRTC drivers of Kavali depot of Nellore district on a charge of having a nexus with red sanders smugglers and seized 39 red sanders logs weighing 1.10 tonnes, two cards and 18 mobile phones from them on Saturday.
The woodcutters/smugglers belonging to Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, Dharmapuri and Tirupur districts in Tamil Nadu were arrested in raids in the forest areas in Mydukur sub-division in Kadapa district on getting a tip-off, Additional SP (Operations) B. Satya Yesubabu told the media in Kadapa.
The three RTC drivers of Kavali depot — Galla Yesupadam, 45, Soore Gopal Reddy, 57, and Battepati Saptagiri, 38, — who plied buses on the Kavali-Bengaluru route colluded with red sanders smugglers to earn easy money and transported them till the highways nearer to Mydukur forest area in Kadapa district.
The drivers were arrested after securing evidence that they charged ₹1,000 per smuggler in addition to the RTC fare and transported them about four to six times while on duty, he added.
Twelve woodcutters of Thiruvannamalai and Vellore districts were arrested in Nallamala forest area near Krishnampalli in Duvvur mandal and 14 red sanders logs and 10 mobile phones were seized. Those arrested were: Siva Kumar, 25, Velliyan Babu and Ponnuswamy Murugan, 30, of Thiruvannnamalai district and Hanuman Muthu, 20, Hanuman Margandan, 19, Subramani Ramesh, 35, Andi Paramasivan, Vedi Kali, Vedi Kumar and Kali Kali, all of Vellore district and an RTC driver Galla Yesupadam of Kavali. In a raid at Kannelavagu in Lankamalla forest area in Khajipet mandal, Andi Govindan, 35, Govindan Mahendran, 36, Raman Murugan, Govind Raj Sampath, 27, Perumal Krishnan Murthy, 23, Kulan Venkateshan, 39, Mani Sravan, 20, Mani Mohan Raj, 20, and Perumal Sankar, 27, all of Thiruvannamalai district, Shanmugam Gopinathan, 27, a driver of Dharmapuri town and two RTC drivers of Kavali, Soore Gopal Reddy and Battepati Sapthagiri .
In a raid at Bhairavakona in Vanipenta forest area in Mydukur mandal the following were held: woodcutters Thukkan Nandi, 36, Thukkan Thukkan, 30, Lakshman Hanuman, 29, Murugan, 43, A. Annamalai, 43, Polandai Ramachandran, 34, and M. Munnuswamy, 55, all of Vellore district, Chinna Thambi, 40, of Kummapalyam in Pondicherry, Govindu Swamigan, 27, of Hosur and Yuvaraj Murali, a driver of Dharmapuri town in Tamil Nadu, the Additional SP said.
Cops complimented
Mr. Satya Yesubabu complimented the following police personnel on their work: Mydukur DSP K. Srilakshmi, Kadapa Faction Zone DSP B. Srinivasulu, Mydukur Urban Circle Inspector Y. Venkateswarlu, Rural CI M. Nagabhushanam, SIs Ranga Rao, Vidyasagar, Ramakrishna, Konda Reddy, Hema Kumar, Reserve SI Jayaram and staff of Kadapa district special party, Mydukur sub-divisional special party and Khajipet, Duvvur and Mydukur police stations.
