In a joint operation, the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) and the Chittoor police nabbed six smugglers, five of them from Tamil Nadu and one from Karnataka, in the last three days in and around Chittoor. They also seized logs worth over Rs 20 lakhs and two sports utility vehicles (SUVs).
As a ploy to get past checkposts on the Chittoor-Tamil Nadu border, the gang pasted images of Tamil Nadu Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and party slogans on the SUVs.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, additional superintendent of police Yelisala Ratna and deputy superintendent of police K. Lakshmi Naidu said the arrest of five Tamil Nadu--based smugglers yielded valuable information regarding red sanders smuggling.
They said the Tamil Nadu gang members posed as valid licence holders out to purchase red sanders stocks. “Though some of them do possess legal permits from the forest departments of their states, they peddle smuggled logs and red sanders material. When they are raided, they furnish these permits. We checked some records at Krishnapatnam port in Nellore district for details of export of red sanders and who used the services,” they said.
The task force has embarked on a massive plan to gather details about red sanders traders holding valid licenses in India to check how many of them are using valid permits as a façade to smuggle clandestine stocks.
One of the gang members, Idaya Chandran (45), a B.Tech graduate from Madhavaram in Chennai, is said to own a cottage industry with machines to manufacture red sanders artefacts. “He started out by procuring licensed machinery to deal in sandalwood which he extended to red sanders,” the officer said.
The other members of the gang have been identified as Satish Kumar of Annamalai Nagar, R. Karthik from Jawagar Nagar, K. Hakim of Nungapakam, M. Suresh of Vasavibadi (all from Chennai); and S. Liyakat of Katikanahalli of Bengaluru. All of them have been remanded in judicial custody.
Smugglers use TN CM J. Jayalalithaa’s stickers, slogans on vehicles to evade checking
