Notorious international red sanders’ smuggler and YSR Congress party leader Kollam Gangi Reddy was arrested by the Railway Koduru police in Annamayya district on Monday in connection with a land dispute in the town.
Though he was let off after questioning by the local police on Monday evening after questioning in the land dispute case, he was once again arrested and produced before Annamayya district superintendent of police Vidyasagar, apparently in connection with the smuggling of red sanders in the recent past.
Apparently, Gangi Reddy was shifted to Madanapalle for further questioning by the SP.
Sources said he is being suspected to be the man behind the recent largescale smuggling of red sanders in Annamayya district.
For several years, Gangi Reddy had been the most wanted red sanders smuggler. In November 2015, he was arrested in Mauritius from where he was brought back to Andhra Pradesh and was imprisoned.
Hailing from the dusty Vathalur village of Pullampet mandal in the faction-ridden Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, Gangi Reddy shot to national infamy after the police named him as the prime accused in the Claymore mine attack on chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri in Tirupati on October 1, 2003. Naidu had narrowly escaped the mine, thanks to his specially-protected vehicle.
A year before Gangi Reddy allegedly sided with the Maoists to trigger the Claymore mine at Alipiri, he took to smuggling of the prized red sanders wood from the Seshachalam forests. This transformed him from a small-time criminal to a billionaire smuggler.
However, after YSRCP led by Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in May 2019, Gangi Reddy came out of jail. He joined the YSRCP and since then, he has allegedly been involved in extortions and land settlements, besides red sanders smuggling.
