More than 150 cows were rescued at Narepalli toll plaza on National Highway 7 on the outskirts of the town on Sunday morning.
The bovines were allegedly being smuggled from Andhra Pradesh to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in four lorries.
Alerted by the activists of Bangalore-based Prani Daya Sangha, Go-gam Foundation, the police seized the lorries and rescued the cows.
The arrested are: Noor Ahmed, 27, from PTM in Andhra Pradesh, Syed Khaseem, 28, from Gorantla, Hussain, Manikantha, 26, Manoharan, 27, Manovaran, 40, Prabhakar, 29, Satyanarayana, 31, Abrutalingam, 23, Ambarasu, 27, Paramashiva, 23, Jayakumar and Krishnan.
On inquiry, the suspects said that they brought the cows from a cattle fair at Gorantla on Saturday.
Cattles smuggled
However, sources said that every Saturday and Wednesday, cattle heads are smuggled from Gorantla to the two states. Though there is a toll plaza, the suspects manage to smuggle the cows, which indicate collusion of police with the smugglers, sources added.
The sources also said that cows were being transported in goods vehicles and lorries, but the police have turned blind eye to the illegal transportation of the animals.
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