In two separate incidents while the police arrested 24 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu, it seized 46 red-sander longs from two vehicles in Chittoor district.

The Chittoor task force personnel on Thursday morning nabbed 24 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu and seized a mini van carrying them, along with 18 red sander logs, at Irangaripalle village of Pakala mandal, 40 km from here.

The vehicle was on its way to Chittoor from Tirupati, with the modus operandi that the woodcutters would alight at the Chittor-Vellore border, leaving the vehicle and the wood passing into the possession of the smugglers at a pre-fixed location.

In order to avoid detection by the patrol police on the Tirupati-Bengaluru national highway, the woodcutters took to rural road through Pakala village. There is also a version that the woodcutters were on their return path, having already shifted a huge dump in other batch of vehicles.

Additional Superintendent of Police Yelisala Ratna said that acting on a tip-off the raid was conducted, leading to the seizure and arrests. She said that based on the revelations of the accused, further raids and investigations would be continued.

Red sanders logs found in mishap-hit SUV

Meanwhile, in a pre-dawn operation, police seized 28 red sanders logs worth over Rs.50 lakh from an SUV that had veered off the road and fallen into a ditch at Pachikapallam village, 15 km from Puttur.

Puttur circle inspector Mr. Sainath said that the SUV was on its way to Chennai from Tirupati when it fell into a ditch. Upon receiving information from villagers in the early hours, a police team rushed there and found that the driver of the vehicle had fled the scene. Police found 28 logs in the SUV.

The logs and the vehicle have been shifted to the local police station, and a case has been registered.