Police on Sunday night arrested Perumal, an alleged kingpin behind red sanders smuggling. He faces as many as nine charges and had been absconding for a year.
A joint team, comprising sleuths of the Srikalahasti police and the Task Force, intercepted three vehicles carrying red sander logs at Kammakothur on the outskirts of Srikalahasti town before arresting Perumal. The team was led by Deputy Superintendent of Police S. Ilyas Basha
“As a professional smuggler, Perumal was piloting the cavalcade of red sanders-laden vehicles and smugglers, when the sleuths intercepted and arrested all of them. “We have seized three vehicles with two tonnes of logs and ten persons,” Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) S.V. Subba Reddy said on Monday.
Apart from Perumal, a resident of Haritha Colony, the arrested included Sallapuri and Gopal Naidu of Tirupati, Swaminathan, Govindaswamy, Kuppuswamy, Janakiraman, Appaswamy, Ramesh and K. Govindaswamy, all hailing from Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts of Tamil Nadu.
In the last two months, the Tirupati Urban Police arrested as many as 246 persons and seized more than 10 tonnes of the precious wood along with 70 vehicles.
