Police arrest red sander smugglers in Tirupati of Andhra Pradesh

Andhra police arrested five smugglers smuggling red sandalwood worth Rs 4 crore in Tirupathi district to foreign countries on Thursday.

Amravati (Andhra Pradesh): Police of the Rayalaseema region arrested five smugglers for smuggling red sander logs worth Rs 4 crore in Tirupati of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. The five smugglers were identified as Karuppayya Senthil Kumar (42), Devan Nagaraju (44), Vaidhyalingam Sarangapani (64), K Nazeer Basha (54) and Nanni Muthuraman (50).

Tirupati SP P Parameswar Reddy said Puttur rural police conducted vehicular checks at the SV Puram toll plaza on the National Highway 44 at Velagamekalapally Junction in the wee hours when they spotted a speeding car, which was being trailed by a mini-truck, heading towards Chennai from Tirupati side. After noticing that the police inspection is going on the car driver and the truck driver tried to escape, but were soon caught by the police.

During the checking, 191 red sander large logs were seized. Police said that Majjiga Lakshminarayana, a village volunteer from Guttur village in the Chigirala forest, cut down the red sander trees and stored the logs. Three were arrested while the six others escaped. It is learnt that smuggler Senthil Kumar was smuggling the red sanders to foreign countries.