Racket in banned cotton seeds busted by Cyberabad SOT

The Medchal and Rajenderanagar Special Operations Team (SOT), in two separate cases, arrested four men for illegally transporting and selling banned cotton seeds.

The officials seized 1.4 tonnes or 1,440 kg of banned (BG-III/HT) cotton seeds worth ₹36 lakh in two instances.

In the first such case, Pulikonda Yashwanth Kumar, 32, the driver was transporting the seeds from Raichur of Karnataka to Telangana’s Mancherial in a goods carrier vehicle. As many 30 bags of banned cotton seeds, weighing 1,200 kg, were seized from him.

“The driver was paid ₹40,000 by Suresh Yadav, the receiver of the items in Mandamarri of Mancherial, who is currently absconding.

A case was registered by Genome police under Sections 188 and 420 of the Indian penal Code (IPC), Section 19 of Seeds Act and Section 15 of Environment Protection (EP) Act. Meanwhile, efforts are on to trace and nab Yadav and the supplier of the seeds who were earlier also booked for cheating and under Section 15 (1) of the EP Act by the Shameerpet police.

In another case, officials of Rajendranagar SOT arrested Borra Shiva Shankar Raom, 63, Ashireddygari Srinivas Reddy, 47 and Madamanchi Uday Kiran alias Kiran, 28, with 240 kg of banned BG-III/HT cotton seeds worth ₹6 lakh. The seeds were sourced from Srinivas Rao in Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh, the officials excplained.

A case was booked by the Shankarpally police. Meanwhile, efforts are under way to trace and nab supplier Srinivas Rao and Hari Babu who was also involved in the business.