A combing party of the Red Sanders Anti Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) opened two rounds of fire reportedly to quell a mob of stone-pelting smuggling operatives at Yerrollabandalu gradient, 3 km from the forest check post of Bhakarapeta of Tirupati wildlife circle, in the early hours of Thursday.
RSASTF inspector M. Vasu, who was leading a 15-member armed party, spotted a gathering of smuggling operatives carrying red sanders logs at the gradient. The trespassers, who became alert on seeing the combing party, allegedly resorted to stone-pelting. The combing party opened fire in self-defence, he said.
Hearing the gunshots, the smuggling operatives abandoned the logs and fled into the thickets. One operative, identified as Gopi (30) of Pattigucchi village of Jawadi Hills of Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, was apprehended. The Inspector said the fleeing batch consisted of about 30 members. Twenty-one logs weighing around half a tonne and worth about ₹ 50 lakh were seized from the spot, and were brought to the Task Force police station at Tirupati.
Meanwhile, task force chief M. Kantha Rao advised the personnel to be alert during their operations.
