Gutkha worth Rs.1.38 cr seized in Hyderabad

The Cyberabad Special Operations Team (SOT) along with the Shamshabad police nabbed a six member gang on charges of illegally possessing and transporting gutkha on Monday. Officials seized gutkha materials worth Rs 1.38 crore in the open market.

The arrested gang was identified as V Gangadri (28), driver, V Nagaraju (35), cleaner, Poorna, Sudhakar, both gutkha transporters, all hailing from Anantapur district of AP, Nagaraju, a trader from Godavarikhani, Karimnagar and truck owner Narsimha Reddy from Pulakunta, AP.

Following an alert, the police intercepted a DCM truck (with registration No AP02 TC 6933) at Nagulamma Temple on the Bengaluru Highway near Tondupally village toll gate in Shamshabad on Monday night.

“We found 230 gutkha bags weighing about 3.2 tons. Each bag containing 70 packets of MHKBR branded Gutkha. Each packet contained 85 small gutkha sachets with each costing about Rs 10. The total value



of the seized gutkha is estimated to be around Rs 1.38 crore in the open market” police said.

According to the police, further interrogation of the gang members revealed that for the last three months Gangadri who is working as the driver for Narsimha Reddy’s truck had been transporting gutkha with the help of Poorna and Sudhakar who regularly transport tomatoes to Kolar in Karnataka from Anantapur.

While coming back, they illegally transport gutkha from Kolar to various places in AP and Telangana.

Officials further said, on December 30, the truck started from Anantapur loaded with tomatoes and reached Kolar in the noon.“After delivering tomatoes at Kolar in the night, on Poorna’s instructions, gutkha was loaded in it and the truck was handed over to Gangadri for delivering it to Nagaraju, owner of Sai Kirana and General stores at Godavarikhani in Karimnagar,” officials said.