Metro India News | Hyderabad 

The sleuths of Commissioner’s Task Force, South West Zone team joint operation with Habeeb Nagar Police conducted a raid on a warehouse situated at Afsal Sagar, Agapura road, Habeeb Nagar, Hyderabad arrested two persons and seized huge quantity of contraband foreign cigarettes and an auto from them.

Arrested men have been identified as Mohammed Imran (42), resident of Aghapura, Habeeb Nagar and Mohammed Ayub (50), resident of Afzal Sagar, Habeeb Nagar. Police have seized 11 gunny bags (39,500 packets) Gold Stag Cigarettes, 3 gunny bags (4,500 packets) of Black Cigarettes, one gunny bag Mond Cigarettes (1,000 packets) and a passenger auto, total worth of Rs 20,50,000.

The accused Mohammed Imran is a native of Nizamabad who migrated to Hyderabad. He has a family business, ‘SN Traders Pan Masala’, at Aghapura, Hyderabad. However, over the past few years, the accused has been involved in the illegal business of banned cigarettes. He has connections with Ramesh, a resident of Gujarat, Delhi, and procures foreign banned cigarettes at a low price through various means of transportation. He then sells these cigarettes in Hyderabad city with the help of auto drivers at a high price, earning money illegally.

Further, it is also found that there are no pictorial warnings on Cigarette packets. The accused were dishonestly and fraudulently procuring Cigarettes to avoid customs duty and GST which is causing wrongful loss to Government and also cheating to the gullible people in the guise of original cigarettes, which is an act of cause endanger to the human life.