Five held for smuggling red sanders

BENGALURU: A gang of five was arrested for transporting 1.5 tons of  red sanders and the vehicle used for transporting the logs was also seized by the Mahalakshmi Layout Police  on Thursday.

The arrested are Siddaraju, Prajwal, Lokesh, Devaraja and Govindaswamy. They had placed crates of tomato on the red sanders logs in the Mahindra Bolero goods vehicle in order to avoid detection

The seized red sanders logs and the Bolero

It is said that the gang had stolen  the red sanders from  the Devalapura forest in Mandya and were arrested when they were transporting  the logs to Tamil Nadu.

Among the accused, Govindaswamy has several cases filed against him in some parts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.