Mancherial: Two persons were arrested and five others booked on charges of smuggling teak timber logs by a van at Devunigudem village in Jannaram mandal under Indanpalli Forest Range on Tuesday. The value of the logs is assessed to be Rs 1.2 lakh. The van and logs were seized from them.
In-charge Indanpalli Forest Range Officer Md Hafeezuddin said the arrested persons were Kasturi Lachaiah and Battini Janardhan from Pathamamidipalli. The two had purchased the timber from Lakavath Heeraman, Lakavath Upender and Lakavath Vinod of Devunigudem and were on the way to sell the same to Bachala Subhash and Nandi Suresh of Lingapur village.
A case was registered against seven persons for their involvement in the smuggling of the wood under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 72 and AP Forest Act 1967. Forest Section Officer Ravi, Forest Beat Officers Maqbool and Muzeebuddin and others took part in the operation.