Seized 28 red sandalwood logs worth Rs 75 lakh

Kavali (Nellore district): The Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) on Saturday seized 28 red sandalwood logs worth about Rs 75 lakh and arrested three smugglers in Kavali forest beat of Nellore District. Following the directions of task force SP K Chakraborty, DSP Muralidhar, RSI Ali and RI Kripananda along with their personnel carried out combing from Rapur. When the task force team reached Kavali, they found some people moving suspiciously near Annapurna Rice Mill. On noticing the task force personnel, they tried to run away. The alert task force personnel chased them, leading to the arrest of three while the remaining managed to escape. The intense questioning of the three led to the task forcing finding a dump nearby in which 28 red sanders logs were found hidden.

The arrested persons have been identified as Galla Udaya Bhaskar (57) of Nellore town, Abbu Bhaskar (39) of Badvel and Riaz (29) of Balapalli. Based on the information from the three arrested persons, police are on the lookout for the remaining three who escaped. They were Sudhakr of Yerpedu, Tirupati district, and Dsaratha Naidu from Railway Koduru of Annamyya district. CI Chandrasekhar registered a case. DIG Senthil Kumar congratulated the officers and the men involved in the operation and announced rewards.