A police team, led by CI (East Rural) S. Chandrasekhar, on Monday nabbed Hazi Nazir alias Nazirulla Khan (48) of Old Pension Mohalla locality of Bengaluru, one of the most wanted red sanders smuggling accused, at Penumuru Cross on the outskirts of Chittoor in the early hours of Monday and seized four high-quality logs and an SUV.
The police said Hazi Nazir had been operating as an exporter and smuggler in the banned trade since 2014. As per preliminary investigation, he had smuggled out over 1,000 tonnes of red sanders logs, worth over ₹ 2,000 crore in the international market, to various countries, mostly the Gulf and South East Asia. A school dropout, he grew to the level of a busy realtor in Karnataka. Establishing links with red sanders smuggling operatives in various places of Tamil Nadu, Hazi Nazir had evaded arrest a number of times. He is wanted in 20 cases in Chittoor district. After producing him in a court in Chittoor, the police shifted him to the sub-jail.
Film-style operation
In a cinematic fashion, forest officials of Chittoor Division (West) gave a hot chase to a red sanders smugglers on Monday, and seized an abandoned vehicle with one tonne of logs worth about ₹ 2 crore, while the miscreants escaped into the forests of Moghili ghat section.
Divisional Forest Officer, T. Chakrapani, acting on a tip-off, deputed a team in Chittoor town, to intercept an SUV carrying the precious logs and bound for Bengaluru. The vehicle with TN registration coming from Tirupati passed Chittoor town, giving a slip to the search party. After an hour-long chase, the miscreants abandoned the vehicle at Moghili ghat section.
