Flavoured tobacco raw material worth ₹31.91 lakh seized; two held

Pune: The crime branch raided an alleged illegal manufacturing unit producing flavoured tobacco and seized raw material, packing equipment and finished products collectively valued at ₹31

Pune: The crime branch raided an alleged illegal manufacturing unit producing flavoured tobacco and seized raw material, packing equipment and finished products collectively valued at ₹31.91 lakh from Uruli Devachi on Wednesday. Two persons were arrested, police said.

The arrested accused have been identified as Sushil Singh Vishwanath Tomar, 26, and Umesh Singh Ramdin Tomar, 23. Police said both are originally from Morena in Madhya Pradesh and were residing at Adarshnagar in Uruli Devachi.

The seized material included 59 boxes containing tobacco-related products, a pouch-packing machine, a water machine, menthol boxes, glycerol cans and 1,080 boxes of cheese.

A case was registered at Fursungi police station based on a complaint lodged by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official.

The case has been registered under Sections 123, 223, 274, 275 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, along with provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

The action was carried out under the directions of additional commissioner of police (crime) Tejaswi Satpute, deputy commissioner of police (crime) Gauhar Hasan and assistant commissioner of police (crime-II) Rajendra Mulik. The operation was led by senior police inspector Sandeep Pawar of crime branch Unit 5.

Pawar said, “We acted on specific information about the illegal manufacture of flavoured tobacco products in Uruli Devachi. Two persons have been arrested, and further investigation is underway to ascertain the source of the material and whether the accused were supplying the products elsewhere.”