Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The city police have launched a stringent drive against nylon manja sellers and registered six cases over the past three days. Nine accused have been arrested, and 933 bundles of nylon manja worth Rs8.04 lakh have been seized, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ratnakar Navale said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The arrested have been identified as Mudassir, alias Mujeeb Ahmed; Sameer Ahmed Nazir Ahmed; Shaikh Faeem Shaikh Naeem; Talebaz Sherkhan; Shaikh Feroz Shaikh Habib; Munir; Shaikh Fardeen; Abdul Razzaq Khan; Kallilullah; and Ismail Shaikh.
Navale said a parcel of nylon manja had been received at the Parce Delivery Ltd courier service in the name of Pradeep Patil. However, the parcel went unclaimed for a month and remained in the company’s custody. The employees then informed the police. A police team visited the courier office at Mukundwadi and searched the parcel, finding 12 boxes containing 692 bundles of nylon manja.
After the investigation, the mastermind of the racket, Muddasir, was arrested on Tuesday. His accomplices, Naeem, aged 33, of Kakat Gate; Sameer Ahmed, aged 43, of Roshan Gate; and others, were arrested subsequently.
The action was carried out by Sandeep Kale, Sandeep Tayade and others.
Meanwhile, the police paraded manja sellers Shaikh Fardeen Abdul Razzaq, Taleb Khan Sherkhan and Muddashir, alias Mujeeb Ahmed Nazir Ahmed, in the Raja Bazar area on Wednesday. They sell kites and manja from their shop, Heena Patang Shop, in the same locality. Once regarded as reputable traders, they were now shamed by being paraded in the area for allegedly selling banned nylon manja.
The accused used the documents of a labourer from Jalna named Pradeep Patil to bring nylon manja into Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and used a SIM card under his name for the transactions, sources said.
