While Tamil Nadu is breathing fire on the encounter of 20 Tamil native smugglers in Andhra Pradesh, the state still has around 300 workers from Tamil Nadu lying in the jails since 2013. They were accused with the charges of murdering two AP forest officials and were denied bail.
However more than 50 AP workers arrested in this case were given bail. AP’s Public Prosecutor claimed that more than 10,000 workers from Tamil Nadu were earlier granted bail in several cases, had jumped bail and never surrendered over the years.
After Chandrababu Naidu assumed to office, Andhra Pradesh Police arrested more than 1500 people in Red Sanders smuggling. Majority of them are workers. It is said that these workers are paid 10 times more than the normal wages to cut the wood illegally in pitch dark. They do not mind killing the forest officers who try to stop them.
