Two persons were arrested in two different incidents in KVB Puram mandal of Chittoor district and 42 redsander logs recovered from their possession on August 25.
Acting on a tip-off, Redsanders Anti-smuggling Taskforce (RSASTF) Superintendent of Police Meda Sundar Rao rushed two teams to KVB Puram mandal on August 24 night on a combing mission. The first and second team launched their combing operations from Vallur and Narayanavanam Reserve Forest areas respectively, when they sighted workers walking out the forest by carrying felled logs on their shoulders.
Polaiah (52) of Valluru was caught while the others fled in the cover of darkness. The police recovered sixteen precious logs from the spot. Circle Inspector Subramanyam registered a case and is investigating.
The other team found a group of men while combing the Mailacheruvu tank coming under Kalathuru forest beat. The coolies did not pay heed to the warning by the cops to surrender and instead started running helter skelter. The policemen chased and caught Venkataiah alias Pottodu (37).
“Murali, Vinay, Uday of Valluru and Subbulu, Chiranjeevi and Venkataiah of Pathapalem were among those who ran away on sighting us,” said Circle Inspector Venkata Ravi upon interrogating Pottodu.
A manhunt has been launched to nab the culprits.
