Spurious seed racket: 15 quintals of cotton seeds seized in Vanasthalipuram

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda police busted an interstate spurious seeds racket on Sunday and seized 15 quintals of spurious cotton BT-3 seeds that were being transported from Karnataka to Telangana. Two persons were also arrested.

The sleuths of the special operations team (SOT), LB Nagar zone, along with the officials of the agricultural department and the Vanasthalipuram police, conducted a joint raid and nabbed Mannem Laxmi Narayana of Telangana and Namburi Srinivasa Rao of Andhra Pradesh at Mansoorbad under the limits of Vanasthalipuram police station. Since the last three years, the two had been illegally procuring spurious and banned BT-3 cotton seeds from Karnataka and selling them to farmers in Telangana, Maharashtra, and Odisha.

The team seized 30 bags containing around 15 quintals of spurious (BT-3) cotton seeds, a car, and two mobile phones from them – all worth Rs. 30 lakh. Another accused, Narayana Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, is absconding.

Two days ago, Laxmi Narayana and Srinivasa Rao had purchased the spurious seeds at Rs. 550 per kg from Narayana Reddy and transported them to Laxmi Narayana's house in Mansoorbad where they were trying to sell them to farmers for Rs. 1,200 per kg without any valid licence and in violation of the Seed Act 1966.

It was found that Laxmi Narayana was a habitual offender. In 2019, he was involved in the illegal seed trade in the erstwhile Khammam district. Six criminal cases were registered against him in Tekulapally, Burgampadu, and Ashwaraopuram police stations. He was arrested and remanded to judicial custody. All those cases are pending trial. In 2020, he was detained under the PD Act by the Rachakonda police. He was also arrested by Nalgonda I Town, Gurrampode, and Peddavoora police stations of Nalgonda district.