: A special police team of Kadapa arrested an international red sanders smuggler Kandaswamy Parthiban( 46), and three other smugglers of Tamil Nadu from Mount Road in Chennai and seized 21 logs weighing 638 kg, a car and Rs. 20,000 from them, on Monday afternoon.
Parthiban is a close associate of international smugglers Sahul Hameed alias Sahul Bhai of Dubai and Kollam Gangi Reddy of Kadapa district, and has nexus with red sanders smugglers Muniyappan, Sekhar Morey and Tinnu Bhai of Delhi, Superintendent of Police P.H.D. Ramakrishna told the media in Kadapa on Tuesday.
Parthiban, who was arrested for the first time now, was an accused in 41 cases — 18 in Kadapa, 22 in Chittoor and one in Kurnool. He carried out smuggling along with Gangi Reddy for about 15 years and sold about 1,000 tonnes of red sanders logs and amassed wealth to the tune of over Rs. 100 crore, the SP said.
Special teams of the Kadapa police are trying to unearth his assets and steps would be taken to attach his properties as per the new amendment of the AP Forest Act 1967, Mr. Ramakrishna said. The special teams are probing meticulously to unearth his links with other international smugglers of China, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong and other Asian countries.
On the confession of some smugglers arrested recently, Parthiban, resident of Red Hills in Chennai, Thangaraju Ashok Kumar Raju, 33, Ramaswamy Murugeshan, 50, and Andy Raman, 59, all of Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu were nabbed, the SP said while presenting them before the media.
Parthiban, a graduate, who worked as a temporary employee in a private bank, developed contacts with an international smuggler Sandan Meeran, now residing in China and had been smuggling red sanders since 2001, Mr. Ramakrishna said. Sandan Meeran introduced him to Sahul Hameed and he introduced him to Gangi Reddy, he said.
Parthiban developed contacts with the red sanders smugglers of Chittoor, Kadapa and Kurnool districts, purchased logs from them and illegally transported them and sold them to interstate and international smugglers in Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, the SP added.
Pat for personnel
Parthiban and Gangi Reddy visited Dubai together and met Sahul Bhai and struck a deal to intensify smuggling. They purchased logs from smugglers of A.P., Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and transported the same in lorries, cars and containers under the loads of seasonal fruits and vegetables to Rajasthan, Delhi, T.N., U.P. and Maharashtra. The containers containing red sanders logs were sent from Delhi to China via Nepal and Tibet.
