The Sri City police nabbed three red sanders operatives on Thursday at Rachakandriga village near Tada-Chennai National Highway (NH), after intercepting their SUV while feeling towards Chennai, giving the police a slip. One of the trio is a notorious operative wanted in as many as 64 cases in various police stations in Rayalaseema and elsewhere in the South.
Accused tried to flee
According to the Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar, the Sri City circle police, acting on a tip-off from the Red Sanders Task Force (SBX), rushed to Rachakandriga village zone and mounted surveillance on suspicious vehicles towards the Chennai NH.
The accused, who were in an SUV, reportedly tried to flee towards Chennai at high speed on seeing the cops on patrol, but the alert policemen chased the vehicle and intercepted it a few metres away.
Three inmates of the vehicle, including the driver, were apprehended.
Identified through FINS
With the help of the Fingerprints Identification Network System (FINS), the trio were identified as Janga Siva Sankar (41) of Avilala locality in Tirupati, and his accomplices A. Tirumal Reddy (37) of Yerravaripalem in Chittoor district, and Siraj Basha (40) of Nellore town.
Active in the red sanders smuggling network since a decade, Siva Sankar is wanted in 64 cases in various police stations in the Southern states. The Forest Department had booked him under the PD Act in 2014, and the Chittoor police in 2017. As per police records, Siva Sankar has links with several kingpins of the red sanders smuggling network in India.
Tirumal Reddy is said to be a local smuggler and a labour supplier who cuts the red sanders logs.
Siraj Basha has been working as a driver for vehicles used in clandestine transport of the red sanders smugglers to southern and northern States since 2009, with a Forest Department case against him.
