Police have unravelled a nexus between APSRTC drivers and red sander smugglers, by arresting 11 drivers of Nandyal and Allagadda depots in Kurnool district, who allegedly acted as conduits to smugglers from Tamil Nadu. These drivers allegedly transported groups of workers engaged to fell red sander logs from Tamil Nadu to Kadapa district frequently, Kadapa SP Navin Gulati said on Tuesday.
Five workers hailing from Tamil Nadu were also arrested and five red sander logs worth Rs. 3.3 lakh were seized from them. Police arrested Syed Akbar Hussain (54), an RTC driver hailing from Hanifnagar in Nandyal, the kingpin of the offence. A group of RTC drivers —Yerraguntla Govindaiah (50) and M. Venkateswarlu (54), both from Allagadda, Pushpala Maddileti (53) hailing from Gospadu mandal, N. Narasimhulu (40), N.V. Ramana (42) S.M.J. Basha (53), D. Babji (49) and K. Srinivasulu (46) from Nandyal— involved in the case were also nabbed.
Explaining the modus operandi of the drivers, Dr. Gulati said they used to pick up labourers engaged to fell red sander trees at Koyambedu bus stand in Chennai. They, through two middlemen, used to collect Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 from each worker to transport them safely to Kukkaladoddi, Railway Kodur and Rajampet.
In the process, they turned down passengers on the pretext that all seats were reserved and carried only the labourers. They used to take alternative routes without halt en route, bypassing bus depots, where they ought to stop to ferry the labourers, the SP explained.
The drivers used service numbers 6443 and 6445 from Nandyal depot and service number 6,560 belonging to Allagadda depot for transporting workers. A report would be sent to the APSRTC authorities to initiate departmental action against the erring drivers, he added.
The nexus between RTC drivers and labourers came to light, with Rajampet DSP Aravind Babu and Rajampet Rural Circle Inspector Y. Venkateswarlu arresting five workers from Tamil Nadu and seizing five red sander logs from their possession on Rollamadugu road in the Rajampet-Rayachoti route on Monday evening. Even as the labourers tried to flee, the police nabbed them, the SP said.
The arrested workers have been identitifed as Ponnuswamy Pachappan (25) and Raman Subramani (31) from Kalchipakam and Elumalai Suresh (19) of Ramapuram in Poluru taluk, in Tiruvannamalai district, Velliyam Kumban (44) and Ravichandran Palani (31) of Erukkada in Salem district of Tamil Nadu.
