The Chittoor police on Thursday evening produced notorious red sanders smuggler Soundara Rajan before the III Additional District Magistrate court in Chittoor town, which remanded him till May 5. Police later shifted him to the Chittoor sub-jail amid tight security.
A Special Task Force (STF) team, led by Chittoor SP Ghattamaneni Srinivas, had nabbed Soundara Rajan in the Hasimara forest in West Bengal bordering Bhutan on April 19.
He was involved in more than 30 criminal cases across the country, mostly in the southern States. Following Soundara Rajan’s arrest in West Bengal, the STFseized more than eight tonnes of red sanders at Hasimara near the Bhutan border. It was followed by the arrest of one of his gang members and a notorious smuggler, Saravanan, in Chennai, where another 4.5 tonnes of the precious wood were seized, all worth over Rs. 10 crore. It was he who used to monitor money transactions in the contraband trade.
Chittoor III ADM court remanded him at the Chittoor sub-jail on Wednesday night.
