Chittoor Superintendent of Police Kranthi Rana Tata on Tuesday said steps were underway to initiate criminal proceedings under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act against the four notorious inter-State red-sander smugglers belonging to Tamil Nadu who were recently arrested during a special drive launched to track down gangs rampaging the Seshachalam hill ranges known for the red-sander trees.
According to the crime profiles of the smuggling quartet released to the media by the SP at a press conference at Chittoor on Tuesday, while Janakiraman of Erumbuli village in Tiruvannamalai district was an expert in mobilising ‘coolies’ and smuggling them clandestinely into the forests to cut the trees, the other three -- T. Dhanapal, B. Kirubakaran and S. Sundar -- all from different parts of Chennai were reportedly specialists in shipping the timber from Chennai to countries like China, Malaysia, Dubai etc.
The SP also cited in this connection the arrest of other hardcore smugglers like Reddy Narayana of Kadapa and Nagari Subramanyam who was evading an arrest warrant issued under the PD Act and Gajjela Seenu Reddy of Rompicherla besides the nabbing of Kerala-based international smugglers like, Shafi, Antony Moris, Abdul Kalam and Mustafa Ahmed. All of them have been remanded to judicial custody, he said and claimed that in the last two months after the special drive was launched, as many as 426 persons were arrested 55 cases registered, 29 tonnes of red-sander logs and 30 vehicles seized.
The SP said on the basis of information provided by the arrested smugglers, the special teams could nab the international, inter-State and the inter-district smugglers. This apart, during the special drive, 426 coolies from Tamil Nadu bound for the Seshachalam ranges to fell the trees were also arrested.
As for the measures taken to curb the menace, he cited the setting up of a base camp close to Kalyani Dam near Tirupati to ensure combing and round-the-clock vigil. This apart, six special check-posts were set up on the AP-Tamil Nadu border.
Joint teams
Joint teams comprising officials from the police and forest departments were dispatched to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala to caution and counsel people against infiltrating the Seshachalam forests. Crime dossiers were prepared and shared with all stakeholders to effectively track the movement of the gangs, the SP said.
