The district police from Vellore have intensified their vigil on transport and sale of gutkha products. Police sources said the issue of transport of banned substances from neighbouring Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh had come up for discussion recently.
The police had given a briefing on the action taken and the resultant reduction in the transport of the banned substances.
However, they have been asked to intensify their checks on vehicles to and from Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts.
A police team conducted a surprise check of vehicles near Ambur town on the Bengaluru-Chennai highway where they intercepted a car and a lorry.
The lorry was reportedly carrying carton boxes of gutkha and other tobacco products worth ₹50 lakh. The police seized the entire stock along with the vehicles. Later, the vehicles were taken to the Ambur taluk police station.
The police arrested the lorry driver Sureshkumar, 32, and cleaner Saravanan, 26, both from Salem.
The occupants of the car were identified as Mohammed Ghouse, 27, Abdul Faiz, 29, and Ibrahim,37, from Vellore. Inquiries revealed that they engaged the van to transport the gutkha products to be supplied to small traders in Vellore and other neighbouring towns. The traders had engaged them on a hire basis for transporting the stock from Bengaluru.
Ambur town police also interrogated the traders on their contacts in Bengaluru and Vellore.
