Man held with banned tobacco products worth Rs 1.97 lakh in Navi Mumbai

The Navi Mumbai police have arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly possessing banned tobacco products worth Rs 1.97 lakh, an official said on Monday. Based on a tip-off, officials of the Navi Mumbai crime branch on Saturday raided a room in a chawl at Padgha village in Taloja area, the official from Taloja police station said.

They seized a stock of scented tobacco, betel nuts and paan masala worth Rs 1.97 lakh from his possession, he said.

The police arrested the man, identified as Guddu Minku Gupta, who was allegedly planning to sell the products with the help of two other persons, the official said.

Efforts were on to trace the two others, he said.

The police have registered an FIR against the three accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, he added.

The sale and consumption of gutka, scented and flavoured tobacco has been banned in Maharashtra since 2012.

In 2018, the state government made sale of gutka a non-bailable offence and enhanced the punishment for it from six months to three years.