Mancherial: Three persons were arrested the Task Force on charges of smuggling spurious cotton seeds under the guise of transporting paddy grains at Boyapalli village in Thandur mandal on Friday night. Two vehicles and five quintals of the seeds were seized from them. The value of the seeds was assessed to be Rs 10 lakh. Two more accused persons were absconding.
Ramagundam Task Force Inspector A Ashok said the accused persons were Sriramula Naveen, Odnala Rakesh and Morla Venkata Swamy. Kodipaka Ranjith and Gandla Mahesh, seed traders from Rechini, were still at large.
The arrested persons were procuring the seeds from Ranjith and Mahesh and were on the way to sell it to farmers in Bellampalli constituency, police said.