Mumbai: Police conduct raids at shops in Andheri and Powai, e-cigarettes seized

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The Mumbai Police have been conducting major raids in the city against sale of banned e-cigarettes. The police on Thursday said that the Unit-10 of the Mumbai Crime Branch raided shops in Andheri and Powai areas in Mumbai and seized over Rs 47,000 worth of e-cigarettes, the police said.

The police said that following the action, two people- aged 40 and 43-years-old were arrested for the sale of banned e-cigarettes.

The action comes after recent raids in the city in which major seizures of e-cigarettes and tobacco were seized, the police said.

Earlier, the Anti-Narcotics Cell, on Tuesday night, carried out six major operations and arrested 10 people, including the owner of Mumbai's iconic Muchhad Panwala, Shivkumar Tiwari, for allegedly selling e-cigarettes. Tiwari was earlier arrested by the NCB for allegedly selling ganja at his pan shop.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police on Tuesday had also raided a shop in Juhu after receiving a tip-off on sale of huge quantities of e-cigarettes, the police said. This was the second such recent action by the Mumbai Police in just within a week.

According to the police, the officials from the enforcement branch of Mumbai Police had received information regarding the sale of e-cigarettes in some shops in the Juhu area. The shops were allegedly located close to schools.

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A team led by Manoj Sutar had raided two shops located on the Juhu Tara Road in Juhu and learnt that these shops were allegedly involved in selling e-cigarettes and fake foreign cigarettes.

The police had also seized e-cigarettes worth Rs 4,45,900 and foreign cigarettes worth around Rs 96,258. The total seizure amounts to over Rs 5,41,798. On February 9, the police had said that it had raided a shop in Crawford Market area of south Mumbai.

The police had then said that during the raid, the police officials seized e-cigarettes and tobacco worth around Rs. 2.37 lakh including e-cigarettes worth over Rs. 2.24 lakh and flavored tobacco worth Rs. 12,000.

A 55-year-old man was held by the police and was handed over to MRA Marg Police for further legal action, the police had said.

E-cigarettes have been a contentious issue in the county since the Central government announced a ban on these products in 2019. Despite the ban, these were being made available in the market, sources said.