Tragedy struck the special party of cops from Kadapa, as one of its member Prasad (45) and two drivers, were killed and a Sub-Inspector was injured when the container lorry carrying the red sanders logs seized from the smugglers from godowns in New Delhi and Jaipur overturned on the outskirts of Bijapur city in Karnataka in the early hours of Friday.
According to a spokesperson at District Police Office at Kadapa, the container lorry was on its way to Kadapa from New Delhi carrying around 11 tonnes of the red sanders logs, when it met with an accident. At a serpentine cross, the vehicle overturned, in which Prasad, a constable posted at the Chitvel police station in Kadapa district, and two hired drivers were killed on the spot. A special branch Sub-Inspector from Kadapa, Rajarajeswara Reddy, part of the escort party was also injured. They were rushed to a local hospital at Bijapur where they were declared out of danger.
Kadapa SP Mr Naveen Gulati dispatched a special party led by the DSP (Faction Zone) to Bijapur to supervise the treatment of the injured and take possession of the seized logs from the spot. For record, the Kadapa Police nabbed three notorious smugglers - Hassan Bhai, Nafeez and Ashok Kumar Agarwal in New Delhi, Kanpur and Jaipur, where the red sanders logs were seized from clandestine godowns.
64 logs seized, 2 held
Meanwhile, the Task Force officials seized 64 red sanders logs and nabbed two smuggling operatives during a combing operation near Srivari Mettu area in the Parveti Mantapam – Lakshmipuram Cheruvu route, in the early hours of Friday.
The officials, who were less in number, encountered as many as 80 smuggling operatives in the forest area, but the latter escaped into the deep forests. However, officials managed to nab two of them. The Task Force, along with armed platoons, have intensified combing of the forest area.
Meanwhile in Kurnool, DGP J.V. Ramudu asserted that police personnel would not be spared, if they were found forging a nexus or connivance with red sanders smugglers.
The lorry carrying 11 tonnes of the seized logs from Delhi to Kadapa overturns on the outskirts of Bijapur in Karnataka
