E-Paper
Interstate gang smuggling fake tobacco items busted in Dehradun
The products included 280 packets (each carrying 30 pouches) of gutkha, 260 packets of zarda (both chewing tobacco items) and 587 packets (each carrying 20 bundles) of bidi (hand-rolled cigarettes), worth lakhs.
Dehradun The Special Task Force (STF) of the police on Sunday busted a gang of smugglers which used to supply fake tobacco products in Uttarakhand after procuring them from other states.
Two members of the interstate gang, identified as Mohd Arif (from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh) and Mohit Kumar (from Karnal, Haryana), were arrested by the STF from Clement Town area of Dehradun.
The gang had also set up a godown on Turner Road, from where counterfeit tobacco products stored in large quantities were recovered by the STF. The products included 280 packets (each carrying 30 pouches) of gutkha, 260 packets of zarda (both chewing tobacco items) and 587 packets (each carrying 20 bundles) of bidi (hand-rolled cigarettes), worth lakhs.
“The accused used to procure counterfeit tobacco products from places like Uttar Pradesh and Delhi and supplied them to different parts of Uttarakhand including Uttarkashi, Vikasnagar and Rishikesh. They have dropped some other names during the interrogation and we will work to unearth others involved in the network, too,” senior superintendent of police (STF) Ridhim Aggarwal, said.
The STF also got a physical verification of the seized materials conducted through an official team of the company (the imitation of whose products the gang supplied), which declared them as fake and illegal.
The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Copyright Act, Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) or COTPA Act and Indian Penal Code at Clement Town police station.
