Hyderabad: Five nabbed for selling gutka

Hyderabad: The South Zone Task Force on Thursday raided several kirana and pan shops in Chandrayangutta, Madannapet and Kanchanbagh PS limits and nabbed five persons allegedly involved in selling gutka and tobacco products illegally.

The accused were Abu Bakar, Omer, Md. Abu Bakar, P. Gangadhar and Khader Khan. The police seized huge quantities of gutka and tobacco products worth Rs. 9 lakh from them.

According to Task Force officials, the arrested were running kirana and pan shops and selling gutka/ tobacco products illegally to customers to gain easy money illegally.

According to S Raghavendra, Inspector of Task Force, South Zone, the accused contacted tobacco supply agents. Through them they illegally procured banned tobacco and gutka material for sale.

He said:"The State has banned sale, manufacture, distribution and storage of gutka and all its variants, as consuming or chewing gutka and tobacco products is harmful to health. Despite knowing this, the accused planned to earn easy money by selling banned gutka. Hence, they were nabbed and handed over to the respective police stations for further booking of cases."