The police have seized six tonnes of banned tobacco products worth about ₹ 38 lakh when they were being smuggled to Kerala from Karnataka.
Sources said a team that was patrolling the Madurai Highway on Tuesday, picked up drivers of two mini lorries which had been parked at Karaiyiruppu under Thatchanallur police station limits. As the drivers, identified as R. Ramachandran, 28, of Karaiyiruppu, and E. Velmurugan, 38, of the same area, replied in a contradictory tone, the police checked the lorries to find that both vehicles had been loaded with banned tobacco products, weighing about six tonnes.
After taking the lorries with the drivers to the Thatchanallur police station, the police informed officials attached to the Department of Food Safety to check the contraband and take the samples for mandatory analysis. Even as a police team was questioning Ramachandran, another team started checking the godowns in and around Thatchanallur area as they suspected that Ramachandran, a native of this area, might have stocked the tobacco products to be smuggled to Kerala at an advantageous time.
“Though both the Kerala-bound lorries had to cross several check-posts erected en route from Karnataka, the drivers have managed to reach Tirunelveli without the banned product being seized at any of these points. So we’re in the process of identifying the persons behind this illegal trade,” said the police.
Further investigations are on.
