Telangana: Cotton seed racket busted by Rachakonda police

HYDERABAD: A gang involved in a spurious cotton seed racket was busted on Tuesday by Special Operations Team (SOT) sleuths of Rachakonda commissionerate in Telangana. The sleuths arrested four members of the gang and seized Rs 50 lakh worth of stock.
Acting on a tip-off, the team of Rachakonda SOT along with the officials of agriculture department and Hayathnagar police raided a godown in Brahmanapally in Hayathnagar and nabbed the offenders while they were mixing and packing the spurious Bt cotton seeds to sell it to farmers.
The accused have been identified as Chinthala Venkateshwarlu (30) of Jawaharnagar, Putta Venkata Ramana (46) of Nandyala Mandal of Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh, Nomula Venkanna (32) and Vagalagaani Ashok (32), both from Hayathnagar. Another associate of the gang, Pathlavath Krishna Naik from Kurnool District is still at large.
Bags containing 2.5 tonnes of spurious cotton seed along with its processing and packing equipment and a total of 500 empty labelled covers various brands from their possession.
According to police, they were carrying out the business without a license under the Seed Act 1966. The gang would mix the spurious seed with seed chemical and pack them in labelled covers of various brands to sell it to farmers.
A case was registered against them under sections 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC, relevant sections of Seeds (Control) Order, and Seeds Act 1966.