Chittoor: Chittoor police surrounded smugglers carrying red sandalwood sticks on the Kuppam-Krishnagiri highway at 3 am on Saturday and seized 62 red sandalwood sticks, valued at Rs 50 lakh, from them. The police have also seized a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle from them. The police have started investigation by registering a case by arresting the infamous red sandalwood smuggler Raghunath Reddy and three of his supporters.

Three weeks ago, police arrested three smugglers in Tirupati and seized 34 red sandalwood sticks worth Rs 1 crore. Similarly in Tirupati, the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force on Tuesday seized 53 Red Sanders logs and arrested a smuggler in connection with two incidents reported near Tirupati. According to Task Force SP M Sundar Rao, two teams of task force personnel led by DSP Muralidhar conducted a search operation inside Seshachalam forests near Srivari Mettu Marg in the last two days.

On Monday evening, a group of smugglers were seen carrying logs inside the forest area. But before the task force team could surround them, the group of smugglers managed to escape in the dark, leaving behind the sticks of red sandalwood. Police have seized 26 red sandalwood sticks from the spot. In the second incident reported near Gollapally-Timmaraju Kandriga areas, task force officials seized 27 red sandalwood logs and arrested a smuggler identified as Krishnaiah (53), a resident of Sadashiva ST Colony near Puttur .

Painful: Uncontrolled truck rammed into house, Brother-Sister crushed to death

NCB officer took out woman's underwear and sniffed, arrested by RPF

DMRC warned scoundrels cheating in the name of getting jobs in Delhi Metro