Two tonnes of rice seized; three held

Police have seized two tonnes of ration rice and nabbed three persons who smuggled it to Kerala.

When a police team was conducting a vehicle check at Nanguneri toll plaza on Tirunelveli – Kanyakumari National Highway on Sunday night, it found the ration rice, packed in a few bags, had been kept in a car proceeding to Thiruvananthapuram.

Driver Vivek (24) of Oththappanaiveedu near Marthandam told the police that a ration rice-laden mini-lorry coming behind his car was also proceeding to Thiruvananthapuram.

As the police checked the lorry, they found the essential commodity, packed in 350 bags and weighing about two tonnes, was being smuggled to Kerala. Subsequently, mini-lorry driver Jaffer Khan (27) of Kaliyakkavilai and Cletus (30) of Marthandam were detained.

Confiscated vehicles along with the trio were handed over to the Civil Supplies CID police.

During interrogation, the police found that the three, after collecting rice from select ration shops in Tirunelveli district, were selling it to hotels in Kerala for a premium.

Further investigations are on to identify the brokers and the ration shop workers who sold the rice to be smuggled to Kerala.