A routine vehicle check during a traffic jam led to the
seizure of nearly 6 tonnes of banned chewable tobacco products from a
lorry near Vaidiyanathan bridge on Ennore High Road in Tondiarpet on
Thursday. The seizure was the second such instance in less than a month
after the consignment confiscated near the bridge on August 12. However,
the volume of the seizure this time was almost double that of the
previous occasion.
Police said that the consignment
might have been heading to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where there is
no ban in place, via Chennai port.
On Thursday,
around 1 p.m., a team of policemen from the R.K. Nagar police was
checking vehicles amidst the chaotic traffic. They stopped a lorry
bearing a Tamil Nadu licence plate and found gutka packed in 160 gunny
bags, each containing 40 kg of the banned product. The police
immediately seized the vehicle and questioned the driver, M. Aruldoss
(40), a resident of New Washermenpet. During the interrogation, the
driver stated that the consignment was being transported from a
warehouse in Tondiarpet to Mint Street in north Chennai. However, police
officers expressed doubts regarding his account and said that it was
unlikely that the consignment was being transported across such a short
distance, that too within the city limits where there is a ban on the
transport and sale of gutka. Police officials suspected that the
consignment was instead being transported to the islands.
The police then informed officials of the Food Safety and Drug
Administration department. A team of food safety inspectors led by S.
Elagovan took possession of the banned products and the vehicle.
“The
seized products will be destroyed at the Kodungaiyur dumping yard along
with another tonne of gutka that was seized from Sowcarpet last week,”
said an official. The Tamil Nadu government banned the manufacture,
storage, distribution and sale of carcinogenic chewable forms of tobacco
in May. Ever since, the contraband has been smuggled into the city
through various means. On August 3, officials seized over 16 tonnes of
products at Central Railway station on a train that had come in from
Nizamuddin.
Source:http://www.thehindu.com
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