Chittoor Superintendent of Police G. Srinivas on Monday said the arrested red sanders smuggler Soundara Rajan, hailing from Chennai and settled in Rangoon, was wanted in a number of criminal cases in India. “He [Soundara Rajan] has links with smugglers and patrons in China, Bhutan and south east Asian countries. His arrest is considered vital to us. Similarly, Saravanan in Chennai is also most wanted by several States in the south, having links with smugglers overseas,” he added.
The Task Force personnel found that smuggled red sanders logs were secured into dumps in forest locations on the West Bengal-Bhutan border, before dispatching them clandestinely to China through coal trucks.
“The operation near Bhutan became difficult in the early hours of Monday when a herd of wild elephants moved into the operation zone,” he said.
Mr Srinivas said the seized logs and the nabbed smugglers would be brought to Chittoor.
Meanwhile, preliminary investigation into the arrest of Soundara Rajan revealed that one of the two dumps in the rural side belonged to a local sitting MLA.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Red Sanders Operation) V. Ratna said the special team from Chittoor was on the job of securing the red sanders logs from the seized dump. “The land owners there claimed it was currently under lease.”
Scientific investigation
On the seizure at Gandhi Nagar and Avadi localities in Chennai, which led to the arrest of Saravanan alias Madras Saravanan, the ASP did not rule out the involvement of a former Minister from Tamil Nadu.
“Our prime focus is on securing the seizures to safety and conduct further searches. We have information about the involvement of a former Minister there in TN, but we can’t ascertain it without scientific investigation,” she added.
