In a series of offensives on smuggling operatives, the Kadapa police, in a huge haul, seized red sanders logs and arrested 12 persons, including alleged notorious inter-State criminal Simpathi Fakruddin.
He hails from Khadarpalli in Chapadu mandal with a criminal background in red sanders smuggling. He had once been to jail after getting arrested under the PD Act.
Fakruddin was instrumental in bringing workers from Tamil Nadu on tree-felling assignments and chopping a huge quantity of precious red sanders logs in Rayachoti, Chennur, Guvvalacheruvu, Lakkireddipalle, and Siddavatam forest areas of the district. He used to transport the logs to Chennai as well as Katigenahalli, the red sanders smuggling den, near Bengaluru. “As he remained out of bounds for the department in the recent past, we formed special teams to trace him,” explained Superintendent of Police K.K.N. Anburajan at a media conference here on Sunday.
ASP leads team
The team led by Additional Superintendent of Police (operations) M. Devaprasad lay in wait near the village, when the accused was sighted ferrying five red sanders logs in a car, with his accomplice Shaik Latif proceeding ahead on a two-wheeler as a pilot. The police seized both vehicles and also the logs. Based on the information provided by him, several logs were also seized from Vontimitta and Chennur police limits. In all, 20 logs weighing 549 tonnes were seized from their collective possession.
The arrested woodcutters were identified as Muthuswami, Salem Ramar, K. Dhanasekhar, L. Madhaiyan, L. Pandian, Chinnathambi Annamalai, P. Muthuswami, R. Moorthi, R. Madiyathun, P. Senthil, Raj Kumar, hailing from Salem district of Tamil Nadu.
