It was by a sheer stroke of luck that the Veldurti police on Thursday seized a lorry carrying red sandal logs at Davupalli check post near Veldurthi mandal in Guntur district.
The driver of the lorry, in which about 200 logs were being smuggled, lost control over his vehicle and hit an auto-rickshaw. According to Veldurti Sub-inspector B Nagaraju, the lorry driver and the cleaner panicked and ran away from the spot, even though no one was injured in the collision.
The way the 2 ran away roused the suspicion of the police who searched the lorry and discovered the red sandal logs.
Nagaraju said that the lorry was heading towards Vijayawada from Nellore. He said that the estimated value of the red sandal can be put at around Rs. 20 lakhs in the international market. However, the exact value is yet to be ascertained, he added.
The police are making efforts to trace the owners of the lorry which might lead them on to the smugglers. Veldurti police registered a case.