14 Red Sander smugglers held at Seshachalam forest

Tirupati: In a big achievement, Task Force has arrested 14 red sander smugglers while they were trying to enter into the forest along with cooking material and liquor bottles in Panapakkam-Athipalli forest area on Monday.

All of them belonged to the Jawwadimalai area of Jamuna Mattur in Thiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu.

Addressing media persons at the Task Force office, DSP Muralidhar said the combing was started on Sunday night at Panapakkam and continued till Athipalli forest area and this was carried out on tip off about the entry of the smugglers.

He stated that a group of persons with carrying bags spotted to the combing personnel in the forest and the Task Force team had surrounded them.

The DSP told that the combining team found cooking material, bakery food items and some liquor bottles in bags and confiscated them.

The 14 persons who were in the custody of Task Force had confessed in preliminary investigation that they were coming from Thiruvannamalai of Tamil Nadu for cutting precious wood on contract and added that the investigation is going on to find the person behind them.

With this arrest, he said that they were able to prevent cutting red sander trees in the forest. (UNI)