Gutka worth ₹1.5 crore seized

In a major haul, the Chittoor police seized gutka stocks worth about ₹1.5 crore from an illegally operated godown at Satyavedu in the district, located just a few km away from the Tamil Nadu border, in the wee hours of Sunday. The police nabbed seven persons, including the kingpin of the clandestine operation, and seized a container, a truck, and an SUV.

Acting on information from Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar, a special party was formed with Circle Inspectors B. Srinivasulu (Satyavedu), K. Maddachari (Nagari), and K. Rajasekhar (Nindra). The team rushed to Satyavedu on Saturday midnight and completed the operation in a couple of hours.

Modus operandi

Inspector Rajasekhar said that the prime accused was operating a godown at Satyavedu to process the loading of stocks to Tamil Nadu. “The modus operandi of the accused is to procure guta stocks in bulk from Karnataka, where there is no ban on the products, and to stock them at Satyavedu, before suppying them to the clients in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, the states where the tobacco products are banned. He would act cleverly by using the vehicles with registration numbers of the neighbouring States during transit to avoid being suspected by the police at check-posts,” the police officer said.

Apart from Satyavedu, the special police party also raided a couple of locations at Badur and Uttukottai, the border towns in Tamil Nadu, and seized small quantum of gutka stocks there.