Inter-State Spurious Seed Racket Busted In City

The Hyderabad police today nabbed seven persons while they were transporting spurious cotton seeds to sell to gullible farmers.

They seized 2.65 tons of the spurious (BG-III/HT) seeds, which are banned by the State government.

Some of the accused were identified as Sadashiva Reddy, 48; Kummari Tayappa, 32; and Buddanodu Ramchandar, 43 - all agriculturists and residents of Karnataka - and Bogudu Suresh, 51, a printing press owner and resident of Hyderabad.

As per their plan, the accused started to sell the banned seeds to farmers on the outskirts of Bachupally and Balanagar. On the evening of May 25, they loaded 23 bags (1,400 kg) of BG-III/HT cotton seeds in a Bolero and were moving from Putpak, Yadgir, Karnataka, to the outskirts of the Bachupally and Balanagar areas. En route, they were caught by the SOT Balanagar Zone and officials of the agriculture department.