Navi Mumbai: 28-year-old man held with banned tobacco products worth Rs 1.97 lakh

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The Navi Mumbai police have arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly possessing banned tobacco products worth Rs 1.97 lakh, an official told news agency PTI on Monday.

Based on a tip-off, officials of the Navi Mumbai crime branch on Saturday raided a room in a chawl at Padgha village in Taloja area, the official from Taloja police station told PTI.

They seized a stock of scented tobacco, betel nuts and paan masala worth Rs 1.97 lakh from his possession, he said.

The police arrested the man, identified as Guddu Minku Gupta, who was allegedly planning to sell the products with the help of two other persons, the official told PTI.

Efforts were on to trace the two others, he said.

The police have registered an FIR against the three accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, he added.

The sale and consumption of gutka, scented and flavoured tobacco has been banned in Maharashtra since 2012.
In 2018, the state government made sale of gutka a non-bailable offence and enhanced the punishment for it from six months to three years.

In another incident, the Navi Mumbai police have seized drugs worth Rs 63,200 in two raids and arrested five persons, including a woman, in this connection, officials told PTI on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, the police on Friday raided a place near a chawl in Kopri village of Navi Mumbai and arrested four men after seizing 21.14 gm of brown sugar from their possession, the police said in a release, reported PTI.

Those arrested have been identified as Tahir Mohammad Ali (25), Mohammad Juned Poskar Khan (22), Rafique Aziz Sheikh (21) and Nilesh Bhoir (32), the release said.

The police also conducted another raid in the same village on Friday and arrested a woman, Kavita Rathod (30), and seized 1,060 gm of ganja from her possession, it said.

The total value of the seized drugs is Rs 63,200, the police said.

Offences have been registered against the accused under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, they said.

The police were trying to find out from where the accused sourced the drugs and to whom they planned to sell them, reported PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)