In a major breakthrough, the Chittoor Police on Sunday night nabbed eight notorious red sanders smugglers, four of them having links with international smugglers, from Madanapalle, Bangarupalem and Kallur, and seized logs and SUVs worth over Rs. 1 crore.
Chittoor SP Mr. Ghattamaneni Srinivas and Additional SP (Red Sanders Operations) Ms. Yelisala Ratna produced the accused before the media along with the seized contraband at the District Police Office here on Monday. “Following a fortnight-long planning, the special teams formed by the Task Force raided three different locations simultaneously, leading to the arrests and seizures,” they said. The accused were sent to Chittoor jail.
The arrested are: N.T. Satish Kumar alias Shankar, 45, of Hosdurga taluq of Chitradurga district of Karnataka; Patan Nissar Ahmed Khan alias Bablu, 42, of Chittoor town, but migrated to Bengaluru two decades ago; P. Rajendran, 34, of Pollur Taluq of Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu; Sayyed Moula alias Sulagiri Moula, 40, of Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu; Savel Murugan, 42, of Palayam Kuttai of Tirunelveli district of Tamil nadu; P. Devan, 29, of Tiruvannamali district of Tamil Nadu and Sasikumar, 22, and Manikantan, 20, of Krishnagiri of Tamil Nadu.
Incidentally, four of them - Satish, Patan, Rajendran and Sayyed Moula - have assets worth over Rs. 100 crore each, having smuggled out more than 2,000 metric tonnes of red sanders logs during a period of seven years.
Red sanders logs and SUVs worth over
Rs. 1 crore seized from them
