Banned scented tobacco, paan masala worth Rs 1.10 crore seized in FDA raid

Truck loaded with the banned food item.

Staff Reporter :

In a joint raid by Food Safety Officers (FSOs) of Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and Social Security Squad of Crime Branch had seized a truck loaded with scented tobacco and paan masala worth Rs 1.10 crore from Wadi area. According to a tip received, the FDA and Police personnel raided the warehouse of M/S/A M S Transports, Khobragade Compound, behind Gulsha Petrol Pump, Amravati Road, Wadi.

The teams found 154 gunny bags filled with scented tobacco and panmasala and 55 gunny bags stored in the container in a truck No M H 40 B L 2421 of scented tobacco and paan masala. The H 5 scented tobacco was weighing 739.678 kgs worth Rs 14,79,356 and Premium Hot paan Masala was weighing 5,560.356 kgs worth Rs 59,31,056 with a total weight 6,300.034 kgs worth Rs 74,10,412 was seized by the teams. The samples were drawn from the seized stock as per the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act by FDA. A first information report was filed against Ajay Manoharrao Sontakke age 40, a tenant of Prakash Mane’s house, opposite Dr Khandagade Hospital, Dabha, Police Station Wadi and Truck driver Mahendra Singh Rokampal Singh Baghel, aged 22, a resident of Kushwa town in Jalesar Tehsil in Eta district of Uttar Pradesh and owner of vehicle Jasbirsingh Chaudhari.

The case was registered against them under Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860 section 188, 272, 273 and 328. For Social Security Squad, the action was taken by Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), Nilesh Bharne; Deputy Police Commissioner (Crime), Gajanan Rajmane; Assistant Police Commissioner, (Crime) Sudhir Nandanwar; Assistant Police Commissioner (Crime), Kishore Jadhav; Police Inspector, Kishore Parvate; ASI, Atul Ingole, Manoj Singh Chauhan, Pravin Fandade, Chhaya Raut, Sadhana Chauhan, Pradeep Samrit etc. For FDA, the action was taken under the guidance of Joint Commissioner (Food) Chandrakant Pawar and under the leadership of FSOs (Vigilance) Abhay Deshpande by FSOs Lalit Soyam, Anand Mahajan and Prafull Tople.