Increased vigil by authorities of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) paid off on Thursday midnight, when its Thane unit with help from the Talasari police seized six trucks carrying branded gutka sachets, apart from arresting the six drivers and a manager accompanying the consignment.
Being transported from a Silvassa-based manufacturing firm to an export house at Powai, the consignment worth nearly Rs3 crore was packed in 3,000 cartons which were stashed into several gunny bags, in all weighing around 16,200kg.
Inspector Dutta Chavan of Talasari police said, “It was after the tip-off by Thane FDA authorities that we stopped the six trucks near the Dhondalwadi police chowky in Talasari, on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway No.8 on Thursday midnight (2am).” Manufactured by Kirti Industries at Silvassa, the gutkha consignment of ‘Goa’ brand was meant for sale in Panvel and Powai areas, he added.
After authorities recovered fake documents in the name of the export house, namely Zubair Ali SJJ Export Company, JMJ House at Powai, FDA official Prashant Deshmukh raided the location and found that the firm had no exports licence at all. “Meanwhile, the Thane FDA probing the case has already sent the gutkha pouches for a chemical analysis at their laboratory in Thane and awaiting report,” said Chavan.
While refusing to divulge the names of the six truck drivers and the company manager detained by the FDA, Deshmukh said, “There is only one gutka manufacturer in Maharashtra, as opposed to over a dozen of them outside the state, including Gujarat and the neighbouring Union territories of Silvassa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.”
A case under the stringent Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, will be slapped against the accused, he added.
Source: Imran Fazal DNA India.com
