Unit 2 of the crime branch of Navi Mumbai police arrested two persons and seized a tempo laden with banned Gutkha. The contraband was brought to the city from Gujarat for sale. The gutkha was packed in plastic bags in the tempo. Police said that the total seizure was Rs 10.7 lakh including Rs 4.2 lakh gutkha.
Acting on a tip-off, the police laid a trap near IGPL Naka in Taloja on the midnight of June 17 and when the tempo laden with different varieties of Gutkha arrived, they were caught.
“We had received information that a tempo laden with Gutkha from Gujarat was arriving in the Taloja area via Khoni Fata,” said an official from the crime branch. Accordingly, a team of officials along with officials from the Food and Drugs Administration, Panvel, reached the IGPL Naka around 12.30 am on June 17.
Around 1.15 am, as per the information a tempo arrived at that place and when police officers checked the vehicle, they found different varieties of flavoured Gutkha.
“We seized different varieties of Gutkha and Paan Masala worth Rs 4.18 lakh from the tempo,” said the official, adding that they also seized the vehicle worth Rs 6 lakh.
The two arrested persons were identified as Sachin Sahebrao Gangurde, 34, the driver of the tempo and a resident of Palekhurd, Taloja and Mithun Chandrasha Shetty, 33, a resident of Taloja.
A case has been registered against them at Taloja police station under relevant sections of IPC and sections 26 (2) (iv), 27(2) E, and 59 (2) of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. In the first week of June, Unit 3 of the crime branch had arrested a 32-year-old man from Sarsole in Nerul and seized banned Gutkha worth Rs 4.9 lakh. The accused had stored the contraband at his house for selling wholesale and retail. The police seized different varieties of Gutkha from his possession.
