Kadapa police seized 22 red sanders logs under Siddavatam police limits and registered a case on Monday.
Acting on a tip-off received on Sunday afternoon, police from Vontimitta circle reached Peddapalli village in Siddavatam mandal and surrounded three persons who were allegedly engaged in illegally transporting the red sanders logs. Apart from the logs, they also seized an SUV and two motorcycles used by the accused.
The accused have been identified as R. Kadirayya (43), a farmer, his relative who is also named R. Kadirayya (33), an auto-rickshaw driver, and Sambaturu Pratap (32), who ekes out a living as a tractor driver. The trio camouflaged their smuggling operations under the guise of their profession.
Inspecting the seized logs on Monday, Superintendent of Police (Kadapa) K.K.N. Anburajan said that the localised smuggling operation pertained to the thick forests in the contiguous Siddavatam and Vontimitta mandals, while the neatly-chopped logs were being transported to Bengaluru. He appreciated Task Force inspector B. Nagarjuna and Siddavatam Sub-Inspector M. Madhusudhan Reddy for their efforts and announced them rewards.
PD Act invoked
Meanwhile, the district administration has invoked the Preventive Detention (PD) Act on notorious inter-State criminal Bogapathi Sundeep, hailing from Ramapuram mandal of Annamayya district, for his alleged role in transportation of the logs for the last four years. He is believed to have high-level contacts with smuggling kingpins spread across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. He has seven cases against him since 2019, in connection with his involvement in smuggling the red sanders logs.
Based on a recommendation by Additional Superintendent of Police (Operations) M. Devaprasad, Collector V. Vijayarama Raju has issued orders to invoke the PD Act against the accused.
