CHITTOOR: Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force sleuths on Monday had seized 30 red sanders logs near the Seshachalam forests in Tirupati on Tuesday night. While fifteen smugglers managed to escape in the dark during the combing operations conducted by RSI Vasu and DRO Narasimha Rao under the orders of Task Force SP Anjaneyulu, they caught one smuggler near the Srivari Mettu-Bhakrapet area.

Preliminary reports stated that his name was Venkatesan from Vellicheru village, Jamunamarathur mandal at Thiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu. Upon questioning, he said that he had come for the Red sanders and when the police checked his bag, they found three pairs of clothes. What was amusing was that there was a pair of white dhoti, one saffron dhoti and one shirt and a pair of shorts.

When questioned further he said that he wore the white dhoti while travelling in the bus and moving in the RTC bus stands, while in Tirumala he would wear the saffron dhoti like a pilgrim and the regular pair he would wear when he had to sneak into the Seshachalam forest as and when required. The task force was amused to see his three avatars, which seemed like a script taken from a regular film story on smuggling. Interestingly, an upcoming Tollywood movie featuring Allu Arjun and titled Pushpa is touted to revolve around red sander smuggling in the forests of the Telugu states.

The Task Force released his pictures in these three get-ups, while CI Chandrasekhar registered a case against Venkatesan. Task force sleuths collected the red sanders logs, moved them to the RS timber depot in the city, and are on the lookout for the rest of the smugglers with the information given by him.