Police seized 2,005 kg of unauthorized cotton seed in 50 bags provided by Bharath Patel of Avirat Agri Seeds Pvt. LLC in Gandhi Nagar.

The illicit supply of herbicide-resistant cotton seeds in the state reappeared after the police ravaged a gang that smuggled this brand of seeds from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

On a tip, investigators from the task force team in the Northern Zone intercepted a commercial vehicle near the external departure point of the Secunderabad railway station and found a huge amount of unauthorized cotton seeds, said Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar.

The seeds were smuggled into the city to the railway freight service without any authenticated bill of lading. “The gang was trying to sell harmful seeds under the guise of real seeds to farmers secretly in and around Telangan in order to quickly make money,” the commissioner said.

The defendants were identified as 48-year-old Ravula Rajinikant, managing director of Omkar Seed Tech Pvt Ltd., and 23-year-old resident Banadari Mahesh from the Jaipuri colony of Ballampalli village in Bhongir, the driver of the vehicle.