Shopkeeper held in Gurugram for selling banned e-cigarettes

A shopkeeper was held for selling banned e-cigarettes and foreign-made cigarettes. A joint team seized 100 e-cigarette and 117 cigarette packets worth ₹2 lakh

Gurugram: A joint team from the chief minister’s flying squad, Gurugram police, and the district health department on Friday arrested a shopkeeper for allegedly selling banned electronic cigarettes in Sector 63, police said on Saturday.

Shopkeeper held in Gurugram for selling banned e-cigarettes

The team raided an outlet selling the banned cigarettes in a commercial building and seized 100 banned e-cigarette and 117 foreign-made cigarette packets worth ₹2 lakh. Police said the shopkeeper was selling each e-cigarette packet for ₹1,700 and foreign cigarettes for ₹300- ₹800 per packet.

A case was registered against the suspect — identified as Ranjit Gupta of Bihar — presently living in a rented accommodation in Bhondsi under relevant sections of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act, and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act at the Sector 65 police station on Friday, said police.

According to guidelines, banned foreign cigarettes do not have proper brand names, or statutory warnings on the packet. E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that produce aerosol by heating a solution containing nicotine in it; and its use was banned across the country in July 2020. First-time violators can face an imprisonment of up to one year, and repeat offenders up to three years, said police.

Devender Singh, inspector, CM’s flying squad, said the seized e-cigarettes were smuggled to India from countries such as China, Malaysia, South Korea, and Indonesia; and were bought by dealers across the national capital region (NCR). “We had received a tip-off based on which the raid was conducted,” he said.

Singh said the foreign and e-cigarettes were openly kept on the shop counter. “The shop owner was asked to produce licences and documents related to the goods, but he was unable to show them,” he said.