Ahmedabad police have busted a racket involving the sale of duplicate cigarettes in the Juhapura area and seized 12,000 fake cigarette sticks. Four people, including a rickshaw driver, have been arrested in connection with the case.
The police recovered a large carton of duplicate Gold Flake cigarettes, a mobile phone and other goods worth around Rs 1.70 lakh.
Police posed as dummy customers
The action was based on a complaint and tip-off from Prince Singh, assistant manager of Anvesh IPR Company, Bengaluru. The company had received information that duplicate cigarettes were being sold in Ahmedabad at nearly half the price of genuine products.
Singh and his team approached the suspected sellers by posing as customers. On September 16, they agreed to purchase the cigarettes at half price and arranged to meet near Moti Bakery in Juhapura at night. The local police were informed and a trap was laid.
Four arrested during delivery
According to police, 46-year-old Ilyas Musa Modan, 32-year-old Asif Mustafa Syed and 33-year-old Javed Ahmed Deraiya arrived near Moti Bakery in an autorickshaw to deliver the cigarettes. Rickshaw driver Sarfulhaq Sheikh was also with them.
As they displayed the carton containing the cigarettes, the police surrounded and detained all four. During the inspection, the packets were found to have identical MFD numbers, while the company logo did not match that of the original product, indicating that the cigarettes were duplicate.
Supplier from Bapunagar named
Police seized one large carton containing 24 large packets and 50 small packets, with a total of 12,000 cigarette sticks. A mobile phone was also recovered.
During interrogation, the accused allegedly told police that they had obtained the duplicate cigarettes from Shailesh Gordhanbhai Patel of the Thakkarnagar-Bapunagar area.
Police have registered a case against the four arrested persons as well as Patel, who has been named as the alleged supplier. Further investigation is underway.