Continuing their crackdown on the spurious seed menace, the district police busted an inter-district spurious cotton seed racket, which allegedly targeted gullible farmers in the predominantly tribal-populated district.
In a well-coordinated action, special police teams nabbed eight members of a gang, including its kingpin Mannem Laxminarayana of Hyderabad, and seized 3,000 packets (around 15 quintals) of spurious cotton seed worth about ₹33 lakh during separate raids in various parts of the district on Sunday, the police said.
An in-depth investigation into the seizure of spurious seed packets in Tekulapalli mandal more than a week ago led to the arrest of the alleged agents of the racket – Suresh of Sulanagar, Eluri Ravi of Gangapuram and V. Seetharamaiah of Karukonda village near Kothagudem.
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In pursuance of their confessions, a joint team of officials from the Police and Agriculture Department raided the shop-cum-godown of Laxminarayana, the alleged mastermind of the racket, at Mansoorabad near L.B. Nagar in Hyderabad.
The team seized a large quantity of packets containing cotton seed of different companies past the expiry date, empty covers meant for packing the fake seeds, a cover packing machine and ‘bio-products’ manufactured at a licensed ‘agri-tech’ unit allegedly belonging to the main accused, the police added.
The kingpin of the racket allegedly sold a huge quantity of spurious cotton seed to unsuspecting farmers through an organised network of agents and errant traders in Tekulapalli, Burgampadu, Charla, Dummugudem, Laxmidevipalli, Aswapuram and various other mandals in the district.
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The members of the racket allegedly packed the spurious seed in attractive packets to hoodwink farmers and sell it under fictitious names.
Talking to newsmen in Kothagudem on Monday, Superintendent of Police Sunil Dutt said a discreet investigation followed by swift and well-coordinated raids helped in busting the racket and averting a major loss to the farmers ahead of the crucial crop season.
Cases have been booked against as many as 15 members of the racket under Section 19 of the Seeds Act-1966, and Sections 420 and 120 (B) of the IPC.
He warned of stringent action against those who involve in the manufacture, storage and sale of spurious seed.