Tirupati: Red sanders worth Rs 3.5 cr seized in Gujarat raid

Tirupati: In a major haul, the red sanders taskforce and the district police seized 155 logs weighing 4,952.2 kg) worth Rs 3.5 crore high grade red sanders from a godown in Patan town of Gujarat state on Tuesday.

In the meticulous joint operation, the Tirupati police with the support of local police of Gujarat raidedthe godown leading to the seizure of valuable red sanders logs which were smuggled from in Sanipaya dense forest of Annamayya district in the state and also arrested three smugglers belonging to Patan.

Police also seized a Maruti Breeza car and are on the lookout for the kingpin (name not disclosed) behind the international smuggling of red sanders based in Gujarat.

District SP L Subbarayudu said a few days back taskforce team arrested two smugglers in Sanipaya forest and the intense questioning of the smugglers that followed revealed valuable information about smug-gling of the red sanders to Gujarat and the details of the godown where the logs were hidden before smuggling them to abroad for sale in the international market where the red sanders logs have huge demand.

Following the information, the taskforce team led by taskforce SP Srinivas, DSP M D Sharif went to Guja-rat resulting the huge seizure of red sanders, the SP added.

Subbarayudu said the arrested smugglers and the seized logs and the car were produced in the local court and were brought to Tirupati on transit warrant for further investigation, the SP said.