Three held for selling paan masala, tea

Ahmedabad: With no decline in demand for

tea

or tobacco, but with shops selling paan masala and cigarettes all closed, petty sellers are trying out novel methods to catch the eyes of customers and sell in black. Many are moving about in front of, or in the vicinity of the closed stalls with tea in jugs and tobacco pouches and cigarettes in gunny bags. Police arrested three such sellers on Tuesday. Two were arrested for selling tobacco products, and one for selling tea from a jug.

All have been booked byt Gomtipur and Khokhra police for violation of lockdown norms and also under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

Gomtipur police sources said a patrol team on Tuesday had spotted a man near Poatiyawad Three Roads with a cloth bag on his hand moving suspiciously in the road. “We were surprised to find paan masala packets in his bag. He identified himself as Dinesh Makwana, 77, of Gomtipur,” said a police official.

On the same day, Gomtipur police arrested one Mohammed Imran Saiyed, 28, of Gomtipur. “He had a big jug in his hand. On checking we found tea in the jug, which he was selling. His customers fled from the spot,” said a police official.

Khokhra police arrested Dashrath Patel, 60, on a tip-off from near Bal Bhavan in Khokhra. “He was carrying bidis and paan masala packets in a bag and selling them,” said a Khokhra police official.