Chennai:
Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan on Wednesday
said that truth behind who hired the 20 wood cutters to smuggle red
sanders should be revealed by Andhra Pradesh government.
Refusing to drag Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the controversy, he
said the issue is between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. “Why do you
want to involve the prime minister into this. He will make statement
when it is needed,” Radhakrishnan said.
He also demanded that the policemen who shot dead the 20 Tamils be
punished immediately while questioning the role of Andhra Pradesh in
Red Sanders smuggling.
He also demanded white paper on the killing of wood cutters.
Interestingly, the comment by the minister also comes in the wake of
directorate of revenue intelligence launching Operation Sesha earlier
this year. The operation has been launched by Indian Customs and it is
going to end by this month. However, barring the killing of 20 wood
cutters, there has been no information on who their handlers or even
the port of destination for Red Sanders.
Interestingly, the operation was to bust organised syndicates,
unravelling the financial trial, tracing the forward and backward
linkages an sharing of intelligence.
It is learnt that despite Red Sanders which comes under the endangered
plant species, it is still being smuggled to China and other
countries, despite being named on the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
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