87 shop owners held for flouting cigarette law

In an effort to discourage the sales of foreign-made cigarettes in violation of rules, Eastern suburbs police conducted a drive in the past week with the arrest of 87 shop owners who were caught selling imported cigarettes that did not contain statutory warning, reports Rachna Pratihar.

In an effort to discourage the sales of foreign-made cigarettes in violation of rules, Eastern suburbs police conducted a drive in the past week with the arrest of 87 shop owners who were caught selling imported cigarettes that did not contain statutory warning.

HT Image

Forty packets of cigarettes of various foreign brands were seized during the raids. These packets did not contain warning that cigarette smoking is injurious to health, nor the manufacturing or expiry dates. The drive concluded on Wednesday with the arrest of Shivshankar Gupta (50), a shop owner from Chembur. Gupta was booked under the provisions of Cigarettes Regulation Act, 1975 the punishment for which amounts to three years if convicted.

“On Wednesday, our team laid a trap at Gupta’s shop. After verifying the information, we raided the shop and arrested Gupta,” said Rajesh Kewale, assistant police inspector of RCF police station.