Palghar: Gutka, banned tobacco products worth Rs 19.5 lakh seized; one held

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The police in Maharashtra's Palghar district have seized gutka and banned tobacco products worth nearly Rs 19.5 lakh from a tempo and arrested its driver, an official told news agency PTI on Friday.

The police recovered the banned tobacco products from a tempo while patrolling within the limits of Modgaon-Haladpada on Wednesday, Yogesh Jadhav, Palghar district PRO API told PTI.

The tempo driver was identified as Sushil Sahni (35). A case has been registered in the matter at Kasa police station, and cops are trying to find out from where Sahni obtained the banned products and to whom he intended to deliver the stock, reported PTI.

Last week, a 43-year old man from Maharashtra's Thane district has been arrested for allegedly posing as a CBI officer and cheating a person of Rs 26 lakh, police told PTI.

The 51-year-old victim from Mira Road area was a partner in a metal refining company in neighbouring Palghar which was engaged in the purchase of scrapped batteries, recycling and extracting lead from them and selling the same in the market, Kashimira police station's senior police inspector Sandeep Kadam told PTI quoting the FIR.

The GST commissioner's office had raised a query regarding the purchase of scrapped batteries, pointing out certain faults in the transactions in 2021-22 and issued a notice to the firm.

The victim submitted all his transaction documents to the GST commissioner and was awaiting a clean chit, as per the FIR.

As there was a delay in the matter, the victim enquired from his acquaintances who referred him to a man, also from Mira Road area here, it said.

The man posed as a "CBI commissioner" and offered to help the victim. He allegedly took money from the victim on different occasions between August 2022 and April this year, the FIR said.

He also suggested to the victim some investment options and took money while promising good returns, it said.

The accused had also displayed a board on his car claiming to be a CBI officer, it stated.

The victim, however, neither got a clean chit in the GST matter nor the promised returns on investments.

The accused later gave evasive replies that he had invested the money in gutka business which ran into losses, the police said.

When the victim asked the accused to return the money, he blocked his number, the official told PTI.

The victim filed a police complaint on Sunday, and the accused was arrested on Monday and booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 170 (personating a public servant), the official told PTI.

The accused was subsequently produced before a local court which remanded him in police custody till September 14, the official told PTI.

The police are now trying to find out if the accused had cheated more persons in a similar manner, the official told PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)