The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police last week arrested four members of an interstate gang allegedly involved in the smuggling of banned branded international cigarettes.
A total of 6.5 lakh cigarettes worth Rs 66 lakh were seized from the accused – Anas, 32; Saqib, 32; Sameer Ur Rehman, 23; and Sagar Haswani, 45 – operating in Guwahati and Delhi, said Sanjay Kumar Sain, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), on Sunday.
On December 12, following a tip-off, an Inter-State Cell (ISC) of the Crime Branch led by Inspector Satendra Mohan under the supervision of ACP Ramesh Chander Lamba raided two locations in central Delhi’s Lahori Gate area. It seized 4,70,000 Esse Lights and 80,000 DJARUM Black cigarettes at a godown in Katra Hiddu being run in a partnership by Saqib and Anas, while 1,00,800 Gudang Garam cigarettes were seized from Rehman’s cloth shop on the ground floor of a building in Gali Samosa Wali, the police said.
The cigarette boxes lacked the statutory health warnings stipulated by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and were being stored in preparation for distribution across the city, said DCP Sain, adding that the three accused were accordingly arrested under Sections 7 and 20 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA).
“Saqib and Anas supplied the cigarettes to retail sellers, and Sameer was responsible for managing the distribution in Delhi. They revealed that their partner Sagar Haswani procured the cigarettes from Guwahati (Assam) at a lower cost and transported them to Delhi,” said the officer.
“Haswani disclosed that international brands without statutory warning are popular with youth and teenagers, so he used to obtain such prohibited cigarettes from Paltan Bazar in Guwahati” and split the large consignments into smaller quantities for sale at local retail outlets like small cigarettes and pan shops, where the prohibited cigarettes were sold at a premium, added DCP Sain.
Sagar was arrested in Delhi’s Rohini on December 13.
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