The Renigunta police swooped down on 32 passengers travelling from Chennai to Tirupati in the Garudadri Express on Thursday evening, suspecting them to be woodcutters on a redsanders felling assignment in Seshachalam forest.
Acting on a tip-off, the policemen lay in wait at the station and swooped at the train door, preventing the suspects from jumping out, while others entered into the compartments for a thorough search.
Of the 37 suspects, five managed to flee the spot and the remaining 32 were picked up for questioning. Though the individual details are not yet known, most of them are believed to hail from Tiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu, the epicentre of redsanders business that dispatches woodcutters to Seshachalam for felling trees.
The detention was a sequel to the arrest of four woodcutters in the adjoining Yerpedu mandal early on Thursday, who spilled the beans about the arrival of this batch by train.
When contacted by The Hindu , Deputy Superintendent of Police (Renigunta) K.S. Nanjundappa confirmed that 32 persons had been picked up for interrogation, but did not spell out the reason behind their arrival en masse. He also did not rule out the presence of some innocent passengers among the arrested. The police are likely to present the accused before the media by evening.
