Gutkha worth Rs 69 lakh seized from tempo on Samruddhi Expressway near Kopargaon

The Local Crime Branch team of Ahilyanagar carried out a major operation on Saturday on the Samruddhi Expressway at Bhojde shivar in Kopargaon taluka. Police caught an Eicher tempo (registration DD 01 AA 9545) carrying banned scented gutkha.

Gutkha worth Rs 44.28 lakh and the Eicher tempo worth Rs 25 lakh were seized, taking the total seizure to approximately Rs 69.28 lakh.

Police had received confidential information that the consignment was being taken from Indore to supply scented gutkha at another location. Acting on it, police tried to stop the tempo at the point marked 509 on the Samruddhi Expressway. The driver sped away and got off the expressway about 12 km ahead. The Local Crime Branch team chased him skilfully and took him into custody.

The arrested driver is Dinesh Ramchandra Sharma, a resident of Madhya Pradesh. Seven more accused in the case are reported to be absconding. They include Ravindra Kumar alias Zalim Singh (resident of Indore), Dilip Badlani (resident of Jalgaon), Satish Jaiswal alias Lala and Sohel alias Nadeem (both residents of Sambhajinagar), Akshay Bhandari and Dharm Supekar (both residents of Jalna), and Lala Jaiswal (resident of Sambhajinagar).

A panchnama of the seized goods has been drawn up and further legal action has begun. A case has been registered at Kopargaon Taluka police station. Police are continuing their investigation to expose the chain supplying the gutkha and to trace the absconding accused.

The operation was carried out under the guidance of Superintendent of Police Mumakka Sudarshan, Additional Superintendent of Police Somnath Waghchaure, Deputy Superintendent of Police Amol Bharti and Local Crime Branch Police Inspector Santosh Mutkule. The team included Sub-Inspector Krishnakumar Sendwad, Police Head Constables Arun Gangurde, Vijay Pawar and Abhijit Arkal, and Police Constables Ranjit Jadhav, Ajinath Pakhare, Deepak Jadhav, Balasaheb Gunjal and Vishal Tanpure.

Meanwhile, there are complaints that banned gutkha is easily available in Kopargaon town as well. Citizens are asking whether gutkha sellers and hoarders in the town will also face action after such a large operation. They are watching to see whether the administration will take stricter steps to stop the transport, storage and sale of banned gutkha.