Guttka worth 16.5 lakh rupees seized in Bhivandi after being submitted for sale

City News Mumbai / Gani Khan

In Maharashtra, the prohibited gutkha is brought from Gujarat through secret routes and amassed on a large scale in Bhivandi for sale in Thane and Mumbai areas as well. In a similar residential building, a team of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with police assistance seized gutkha worth approximately 16 lakh 45 thousand rupees.

According to information from the Food and Drug Administration, Assistant Commissioner of Food Safety, Santosh Sirosiya, received a tip from secret informants that gutkha was being stored for sale in the Samru Bagh, Karivali Road area of the city. Consequently, the area had been under surveillance for the past month. During that time, suspicion arose that gutkha was being kept in two residential rooms on the ground floor of a residential building called ‘Saleem Manzil’. Acting on the suspicion, Assistant Commissioner Santosh Sirosiya, along with Food Safety officers Praveen Shinde, Arvind Kandelkar, Arshad Syed, Assistant Police Inspector Balasaheb Salunkhe of Bhoiwada Police Station and a police team raided the premises. As soon as the raid was underway, the gutkha stash holder Vasim Ansari fled the scene.

At that time both rooms were locked, so the police broke the locks with a hammer. In addition to the two rooms, a shop on the ground floor yielded various types of gutkha and scented tobacco, including Rajnigandha, Dilbag, and Rajnivas, amounting to a total of 16 lakh 45 thousand rupees. Assistant Commissioner Santosh Sirosiya of the Food Safety Department said that a case has been initiated at Bhoiwada Police Station against Vasim Ansari for storing gutkha.