Gutka smuggling gangsters arrested, 1.2 cr products seized

Hyderabad: Special Operation Team (SOT) police of LB Nagar raided gutka warehouses at Gokulnagar under Ibrahimpatnam police station limits on Thursday and arrested six persons, belonging to interstate gang and seized gutka products, worth of Rs1.2 crore.

According to police, on credible information, the police on Thursday raided five gutka warehosues at Gokulnagar and Kummar Basthi and Ibrahimpatnam village. The arrested are Syed Khader (43), Syed Chand (68), Mohammed Arif (32), Mohammed Shafi (25), M George alias Ashok (38) and M Swamidas. Two more suspects are absconding.

Syed Rasheed and Mohammed Aziz, the police said, used to supply noxious gutka containing tobacco products by procuring them illegally from Bidar. A lorry and two auto-rickshaw trolleys were also seized from the arrested persons.

The police said an RTC driver in Bidar M George hatched a plan to smuggle banned gutka products into Hyderabad and make a quick buck as his earnings were not enough. George and his brother Swamidas used to collect the gutka products in gunny bags, cartons from various places of Bidar and from the various distributors of different brands and the same were delivered to Hyderabad to the needy customers.

Soon after getting down at Hyderabad the accused Syed Khader used to send Arif and Shafi, auto-rickshaw trolley drivers to collect the contraband products. The gutka was being supplied to petty vendors, pan shop owners in and around areas of Ibrahimpatnam, the police said.