75 logs of red sanders seized, two arrested in Tirupati

Chittoor: The red sanders anti-smuggling task force arrested two persons and seized 75 red sanders logs from them at the NCC firing range close to Alipiri Road on 7 February morning.

When the smugglers saw the task force team, they started pelting stones at them. The officers took shelter behind the trees and finally arrested the two and seized two vehicles during the operation. Task force SP P. Ravi Shankar said the team was conducting a combing operation from Srivari Mettu when they caught the two smugglers trying to transport red sanders from the Seshachalam forest area close to the NCC firing range. They had already loaded some logs into the vehicles. The arrested have been identified as Rajesh and Kuppuswamy from Poluru taluk of Tiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, task force officers said that smugglers are using logos of a political party from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka registration numbers to smuggle logs near the Tamil Nadu borders. Names of leaders from Tamil Nadu are prominently displayed on the vehicles, they said, adding, the smugglers are trying to threaten the task force teams in the name of political parties from AP and Tamil Nadu.