The Pimpri-Chinchwad police have seized banned gutkha worth Rs 91 lakh after they intercepted a truck illegally transporting it on the Pune-Nashik highway on Sunday. The police arrested the driver of the truck, identified as Ganesh Bhadale (32), and launched a probe to arrest the racketeers.
A team from the Chakan police station received input about the illegal transport of gutkha in the early hours of Sunday and laid a trap in the Waki Khurd area to intercept the truck.
Deputy commissioner of police Manchak Ippar said that the initial probe suggests that the price of the seized banned product in the illegal market is Rs 91.2 lakh. A search has been launched for the supplier and the key racketeers behind the movement of banned products at this large scale, added Ippar.
Since the beginning of 2020, the Pimpri Chinchwad police have seized gutkha and paan masala products worth over Rs 10 crores, an official said.
In 2012, the Maharashtra government first imposed a ban on the consumption, production, sale, distribution and storage of gutkha, paan masala and other related products, considering several proven health hazards of these items. In 2019 this ban was further renewed. The state police units and the food and drug administration have the powers to seize and conduct raids in connection to gutkha and paan masala.
Over the last few years, the Maharashtra government has taken two important decisions regarding the crackdown against such products. First is invoking section 328 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which pertains to administering or causing to administer poisonous substances, in the cases of seizures of gutkha and paan masala. The second decision involved invoking the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against racketeers.
Officials said that the fact there continues to be the supply of gutkha implies two things — there is demand and there are several lapses on the state border where the vehicles carrying large quantities of these products from neighbouring states where there are no bans are allowed to pass.
Officials said that even today these products are available at small roadside shops which suggest there is a network of distributors and transporters that exists in parts of Maharashtra. Pimpri Chinchwad police officials said they will continue to conduct these actions to put a check on the trade and distribution of the banned products.
