In a joint operation, the Warangal police commissioner’s task force, along with the Madikonda and the Enumamula police, on Thursday arrested 15 members of two gangs engaged in making/marketing spurious cotton seeds and seized seeds worth ₹2.11 crore, from the Warangal police commissionerate limits.
About seven tonnes of loose seeds, 9,765 packets, a DCM van, a car, ₹21 lakh and the machinery used for making the spurious seeds were seized, according to Warangal police commissioner A.V. Ranganath.
Addressing reporters here, he said one gang purchased loose seeds from farmers for lesser prices and transported it to another gang led by Dasari Srinivas of Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district and one Bhaskar Reddy.
The gang got the seeds cleaned through a Karnataka-based company, packed them in covers resembling those of reputable companies and sold them to farmers at high prices, the officer explained. The gang used to bring the spurious seeds to Warangal and later transported them to various parts of Telangana and Maharashtra for sale to farmers and dealers.
How it began
Police said Chedam Pandu of Hyderabad used to import seeds from a Gujarat-based company as a license holder/dealer and sell them across Telangana. Later, in collusion with a few others, he started selling ‘spurious seeds’. He prepared fake QR code and stickers with details such as manufacturing and expiry dates, MRP, etc., which resembled the packets of the original seeds, for which he is a licensee.
Efforts are on to arrest three more members of the spurious seed racket.
