HYDERABAD: Nalgonda police arrested an interstate gang of spurious seed sellers and seized three tonnes of spurious cotton seeds from their possession.
Police arrested,
Ramesh Markawar
, 37, a businessman from Maharashtra, G Chandra Shekar, 56, a businessman from Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh, V Shiva Appa, 35, a driver from Narayanapet, G Veeresha, 42, a businessman from Kurnool, V Arun Kumar, 35, a businessman from Jogulamba Gadwal District and B Laxmi Narayana, 31, a businessman from Kurnool.
According to Nalgonda district additional SP Narmada, an in depth probe has been conducted into the spurious seeds business for the past three months to identify the accused involved in spurious cotton seeds business.
Among the six arrested accused, Ramesh Markawar of Maharashtra is a key accused. Ramesh was earlier arrested by Mancherial police in three cases and detained at Warangal prison under the PD Act. After coming out of jail, Ramesh again started selling spurious seeds in association with M Laxmi Narayana, 48, of Jogulamba Gadwal district, who was arrested along with three other gang members on July 8 by Nalgonda police.
"Laxmi Narayana along with his associates, procured spurious cotton seeds from farmers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and supplied them to Ramesh for packing work. Without processing the seeds and without conducting germination or genetic purity tests, Ramesh used to pack the spurious seeds under various brand labels and supply them to vendors," the additional SP said.