Interstate spurious cotton seeds racket busted in Adilabad, five arrested

Adilabad police have busted an inter-state gang allegedly involved in smuggling spurious cotton seeds and arrested five persons. Authorities seized fake seeds, pesticides, packing equipment and a car worth about ₹20 lakh. Four other accused remain absconding as investigations continue.

Adilabad: An interstate gang allegedly involved in smuggling of spurious cotton seeds was busted, with the police arresting five persons here on Monday. Police seized 792 packets of seeds worth Rs 20 lakh, unauthorised pesticides, packing equipment, label printing machines, packing material, and a car from the five. Four more accused persons were absconding.

Briefing details of the arrest to media persons, SP Akhil Mahajan said that Papinvar Sunil Kumar, a salesman belonging to Hyderabad, Rathod Pandit of Maharashtra, Girish Patel, a seed trader from Gujarat and Eswar, a resident of Echoda, were apprehended for smuggling the seeds. Sandesh Bandevar, a trader from Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, Ganesh of Echoda, Krishna from Yavatmal and Kiran belonging to Hasnapur were still at large.

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During interrogations, Sunil Kumar confessed to committing the offence to make a quick buck using shortcut ways by forming a gang with the eight. He admitted to procuring the seeds from Girish. He revealed that he was targeting farmers with the help of Eshwar, Ganesh, Sandesh and Kiran. He established seed and bio-fertiliser manufacturers before entering this field.

Adilabad DSP L Jeevan Reddy, II Town Inspector K Nagaraju, CCS Inspector Chandrashekhar, Sub-Inspectors Akhil, Gopikrishna and others were present.