CHENNAI: A team of Andhra Pradesh police arrested a suspended customs official for smuggling red sanders.
Following a tip from one Kapoor, an agent who was arrested on Sunday from Vyasarpadi, the team barged into 48-year-old Pottu Selvam’s house in the same area early on Tuesday and cornered him. City police personnel, who had accompanied the team, had cordoned off the area, said witnesses.
Police said Selvam smuggled red sanders through various agents like Kapoor. They also seized 500kg of red sanders from a godown. On Sunday, police officials from Kadapa had arrested Kapoor who spilled the beans during interrogation.
Police said a team of police personnel from Kadapa arrested a suspect, who was identified as Kapoor of Bakthavatchalam Colony in Vyasarpadi, in connection with red sander smuggling on Sunday. During questioning, Kapoor confessed police that he had acted based on the instructions of Selvam. Following this, police team on Tuesday arrested Selvam on Tuesday and he was taken to Kadapa.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that the Kadapa police had arrested Selvam two years ago for the same offence following which he was suspended. Selvam has now been taken to Kadapa.
After N Chandrababu Naidu assumed charge as chief minister of Andhra, the clampdown on red sanders smugglers became more frequent. It took an ugly turn in April when the Andhra police gunned down 20 workers from Tamil Nadu in the Seshachalam forests. They had gone to cut red sanders there, it was alleged.
Subsequently, the Andhra Pradesh police arrested a folk dancer Mohana, who was said to the kingpin of a smuggling racket, from her house in Vellore.
Following the arrests of two deputy superintendents of police, notorious gangster Appu alias Krishnasamy, who died in Andhra Pradesh prison last year, some leading politicians in the state have reduced the smuggling business, which was thrived in bordering states of Tamil Nadu.
