850 kg of gutkha packs seized during vehicle check in Kovai
The Coimbatore city police stumbled upon 850 kilograms during a regular vehicle check on Thursday night. This confiscation of the huge consignment comes barely a month after police cracked down on an illegal tobacco manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Coimbatore.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-05-25 21:54 GMT
Coimbatore
Several tonnes of banned products were seized during the raid, which was followed by raging controversies as police blamed DMK men for the illegal operations. The kingpin of the illegal unit, Amith Jain is still on the run.
This time, during a midnight vehicle check, police intercepted two load vans and the drivers gave contradicting replies when questioned. On suspicion, the police then opened the gunny bags and were shocked to find packs of banned tobacco products.
On receiving information senior police officials led by Assistant Commissioner Venkatesh and Food Safety Officer P Vijaya Lalithambigai rushed to the spot and interrogated with the two men, who were identified as Roopesh (25) and Bapu (21), both natives of Rajasthan.
Inquiries revealed that Roopesh and Bapu had smuggled gutkha from Bangalore to be dispatched to two traders in Coimbatore. They had carried out the task at the behest of three other persons, whose details are yet to be known.
Food safety officials estimated the value of the seized tobacco products to be around Rs six lakh. And the seized packs have been sent for lab tests for a diagnosis. A further inquiry is underway to unravel their entire network of gutkha traders.
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