Chittoor, Jul 12 (IANS): Andhra Pradesh police from Chittoor district swooped on a red sanders smuggler, seizing 243 logs valued at Rs 6.2 crore.

"Around 7 p.m. on Sunday, police swooped on Imran Khan at a godown in Bommanapalli near Hosur and seized red sanders logs weighing 8.2 tonnes," said a police official on Monday.

Khan (29) hid the logs in a godown belonging to one Ravi.

According to the police, in the wee hours of Saturday, a person was arrested in a red sanders smuggling case.

On interrogation, he spilled the beans on Khan from Bengaluru.

With this information, a team of Chittoor police went looking for Khan at several places such as Bengaluru and Hosur to finally nab him.

Khan confessed to police that the logs were sawed in Seshachalam forest and moved to Bengaluru for onward smuggling to Delhi and Mumbai.

Police arrested the accused under IPC Sections 379, 447 and others, including AP Forest Amendment Act 2016 and Section 55 (2) read with Sections 3, 4 and 6 of Biological Diversity Act 2002.

They also seized two cars, one electronic weighing machine, tape, two cell phones and Rs 6,000 cash.