Vellore student smuggles red sanders to pay debts

Tirupati: A paramedic student from Vellore in Tamil Nadu will miss his final exams slated for the end of this month as he has landed in police custody for alleged involvement in red sanders smuggling near here. S.Ajith Kumar (22), doing second year optometry at the Tiruvannamalai government medical college, was caught driving a Qualis SUV with six logs of red sanders at nearby Karakambadi road late Sunday night, police said.

A source in the special task force handling the scourge of red sanders smuggling in the Chittoor-Tirupati forests said one more man was nabbed along with Ajith Kumar and they offered no resistance when caught.

They said a smuggling kingpin named Prabhu had approached Ajith Kumar through a common friend and took him as an ‘acting driver’. Ajith had been working as a part-time driver to support the family as his father passed away and his mother was just a homemaker. His younger brother worked as a mechanic at Vellore.

On Wednesday, Ajith got an assignment from Prabhu to drop some people near Tirupati. He completed the task and returned to Vellore, when Prabhu paid him Rs 20,000 just for that single trip. “At that time, I was not aware I was being drafted into the red sanders smuggling gang.

The damage was done before I could realise the seriousness of the episode. Being in debt, I just thought that I could use the money earned to clear all my dues”, Ajith told Deccan Chronicle while being taken to the office of the red sanders task force at Kapila Theertham here.

“I paid that Rs 20,000 to a friend who had helped me with funds to pursue the optometry course after I got the seat. I still have another Rs 30,000 in debt. I was one of the 75 students selected in one of the three government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, so you can see I was a very serious student. But now I am shattered, uncertain about my future as my final exams are due end of this month”, he said fighting back tears.

After the easy money earned on his maiden drive, Ajith got a call again from ‘friend’ Prabhu on Sunday asking him to bring back the men he had dropped in Tirupati. After reaching Renigunta, he was told about the red sanders load to be collected. The Andhra Pradesh anti-red sanders smuggling task force police nabbed Ajith just after he completed loading the wood into the vehicle, while the smuggling kingpins fled on a motorcycle.

No Way Out

It would now take Ajith at least 60 days to come out on bail as the anti-smuggling laws are pretty stringent, the courts are firm and the task force cops are tough. By the time the ‘seasoned’ lawyers work out the bail, the lad’s final exams would be over.