Mumbai: Two railway cops held in gutkha smuggling case

A day after they were arrested in a gutkha smuggling case, two Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel will now face a department inquiry into the incident.

A day after they were arrested in a gutkha smuggling case, two Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel will now face a department inquiry into the incident.

HT Image

The duo was produced in a railway court at CST on Thursday and remanded in police custody till Saturday.

Government Railway Police (GRP) officials said that during the course of investigation, it was found that the arrested personnel – Vishal Patil and Vijay Amade – were in possession of the lock and key of a room from which banned gutkha worth around Rs74,000 was seized on October 15. This was corroborated by R Jaiswal, one of the hawkers arrested with the contraband.

A team of Kurla GRP had raided the room after they received a tip-off that it contained some suspicious material, which later turned out to be gutkha pouches of various brands. GRP officials have the entire raid on tape. The seized material has been handed over to the Food and Drug Administration officials.

The GRP also added that the said room, which belongs to the railway authorities, was not an abandoned structure and that it was very accessible.

GRP recorded statement of the senior RPF official in-charge of RPF’s Kurla outpost and he denied having any knowledge of the rooms being used by the RPF. He stated that Patil and Amade acted in their personal capacities.

Senior RPF officials stated that Patil and Amade were suspended, soon after they were arrested. “A departmental probe will also begin against them. The GRP is also investigating,” said a senior RPF official.