Hyderabad: Seven persons were apprehended while transporting spurious BG-III/HT cotton seeds towards the outskirts of Bachupally and Balanagar, in two separate instances.
The Telangana Police, Special Operation Team alongside the agricultural department seized 2.65 tons of banned cotton seeds and other items, all worth Rs 85 lakh.
The arrested, identified as Sada Shiva Reddy, Tayyappa and Ramchander, all natives of Karnataka, and two others, Bogudu Suresh, a native of Hyderabad and Singh, absconding, were bringing the banned seeds, into the state, to sell them to gullible farmers.
According to the police, the main accused, Sada Shiva Reddy, runs a fertiliser shop in the Yadgir district of Karnataka by the name of Raghavendra Seeds and Pesticides and has previously worked at Vasantha Biotech where he gained knowledge of the process.
The accused were arrested while they were moving from Yadgir to the outskirts of Bachupally and Balanagar in a Bolero truck loaded with 23 bags (1400 kg) of seeds, worth Rs 45 lakhs, to be sold to the needy farmers.
In another incident, three persons along with a Duster car loaded with 25 seed bags (1250 kgs), 15 litres of gouache oil (used for the colouring of seeds) and a packing machine were arrested by the SOT and Shabad police along with the agricultural department.
The prime accused in this case, Gattamaneni Venkataramana, a native of Kavali, Nellore, has been running a fertiliser shop in Daulatabad under the name ‘Anuradha Traders and Fertilizer shop’. He was previously accused in two cases related to seeds, one with the Daulatabad police and the other with the Mahabubnagar police.
He also has previously worked with Sai Bhavya Biotech, Vasanth Biotech and Aditya Biotech companies, where he earned knowledge about the BG-III/HT cotton seeds.
The others arrested along with him, named P Raghupathi Reddy and K Praveen Kumar Reddy, are local seed sellers and the natives of Narayanpet district.
According to police, on May 23, the three accused loaded 220 packets of the cotton seeds in a Renault Duster car and were moving towards Shadab.
After these arrests, the Cyberabad police commissioner appealed to the farmers not to purchase loose seeds from any unauthorised dealers or agents, only purchase seeds from branded companies.
They have also been warned against cultivating the BG III/HT cotton, which causes damage to the environment.
