61 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu who fled encounter held by Andhra Pradesh police
Police said red sanders and vehicles worth Rs 2 crore had been seized from them
Nellore/Tirupati: The Nellore district police has arrested 61 woodcutters belonging to Tamil Nadu in two different incidents in SPSR Nellore district in the last 24 hours.
Police said red sanders and vehicles worth Rs 2 crore had been seized from them. Senior police officers believe they had escaped from the site of the April 7 encounter at the Seshachalam forests and had sneaked into the forests in Somasila and Atmakur in Nellore.
“There is no doubt that they had escaped from the Seshachalam forests after the encounter, going by the timing of their intrusion,” a senior police officer said.
Nellore superintendent of police Gajarao Bhupal said the woodcutters held on Sunday belonged to Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Salem in Tamil Nadu.
According to the SP, 18 woodcutters were arrested at Anantasagaram and 43 in Somasila police station limits.
(Photo: ANI Twitter)
Based on a tip off that there were about 30 woodcutters, the Ananta-sagaram police rushed to the forests in Chavurallapalli but could manage to arrest only two. The others escaped. The police later caught 16 woodcutters near Bommavaram village where they were loading red sanders logs into a lorry.
The Somasila police detained 43 woodcutters at Mallemkonda forest following another tip off.
Mr Bhupal said that combing operations in the sensitive areas of Nellore district were continuing since four days.
He said police teams had seized cellphones, two vehicles, a lorry and a car from the accused and registered cases against them.
Police said the woodcutters were carrying weighing machines apart from axes. Smugglers pay the woodcutters Rs 300 a kg for red sanders.
DFO Srikantanadh Reddy said non-bailable cases were being filed against the accused under forest Act.
Woodcutters’ kin protest, call for murder case on cops
A large number of family members of woodcutters killed in the April 7 encounter at the Seshachalam forests assembled before the Chandragiri police station near here, demanding that cases be filed against the police under Section 302. The relatives accompanied by senior advocate Balu apart from other advocates from Tamil Nadu lodged complaints with Chandragiri DSP Ravi Sankar Reddy against the police. A large contingent of police was posted at Chandragiri. Police denied permission to the relatives and advocates to visit the encounter site and clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144.
Mr Balu demanded Rs 20 lakh as compensation, and a job to the families of the deceased.