Hyderabad: Seven held in separate incidents for selling spurious cotton seeds

Hyderabad: The Cyberabad Special Operations Team (SOT) along with the local police and Agriculture department officials jointly nabbed seven persons in separate incidents for allegedly transporting and selling spurious cotton seeds on Friday.

Officials seized 2.65 tons of spurious cotton seeds (BG-III/HT), 2 cars, 8 mobile phones, altogether worth Rs.85 lakh.

In the first incident, the police arrested Sadashiva Reddy, K.Tayappa, both agriculturists from Karnataka, B.Ramchander from Yadadri-Bhongir and B.Suresh from Meerpet at Bachupally and Balanagar.

According to the police, Sadashivareddy, who runs a fertilizer supplies store in Karnataka, has good knowledge of BG-III/HT cotton seeds which has been banned by the government. However, aware of its demand in the market, he planned to sell such spurious seeds to farmers and make easy money.

“Sadashiva Reddy along with his associates procured the spurious cotton seeds and repacked them in small pouches. They were further sold to farmers in Bachupally and Balanagar areas,” said M.Stephen Raveendra, Police Commissioner, Cyberabad.

In another incident, the police teams arrested G.Venkataramana from Vikarabad, P.Raghupathi Reddy and Praveen Kumar, both from Narayanpet, while transporting spurious seeds at Shadbad on city outskirts.

Police said Venkataramana, who runs a pest control equipment store, decided to sell the banned spurious cotton seeds in view of its demand in the market. He took land on lease in Vikarabad district and cultivated the banned spurious cotton seeds and sold it to farmers in Shabad and earned easy money.

The arrested persons and the seized material were handed over to the local police for further action.