Police arrested seven people and seized 560 kg of fake cottonseed.
Nalgonda: Police on Friday busted a counterfeit seed racket, arresting seven people and seizing 560 kg of fake cotton seed valued at roughly Rs 14 lakh.
Police commissioner Sunil Dutt told reporters that an initial arrest of Gajula Narsimha Rao with 450 g of spurious cotton seed led investigators to a larger stockpile hidden on farmland in Enkuru mandal.
A raid on a shed owned by Venigandla Srihari Rao yielded 210 packets of bogus seed, while a follow-up search of associate Emmineni Kishore’s house uncovered another 120 kg. Officers also confiscated seed-coating chemicals, electric sealing machines and blank labels.
Those taken into custody were identified as Venigandla Srihari Rao (60), Ummaneni Naresh (39), Annem Lakshminarayana (60), Gugulothu Gopi (40), Varadaboina Ramesh (40), Thamballa Naveen and Donthaboina Ramesh. All have been booked under sections of the Seeds Act and IPC for cheating and endangering farmers’ livelihoods, police said.
