4 arrested for selling tobacco to minors, over 700 kg seized

TRICHY: The city police seized 743kg of banned tobacco products from two locations in the city and arrested four people on Monday.

The Ariyamangalam police arrested P Siva alias Mohankumar, 41, from Thennur in Trichy, and Manikandan from Mahalakshmi Nagar in Trichy, and booked them under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (Cotpa) for selling banned substance to minors.

The police seized 656kg of banned tobacco products near NSP godown at Ganapathi Nagar from the two people, acting on the complaint from A Kumar, from Nehruji Nagar in Ariyamangalam.

Kumar in his complaint said that he was asked to transport a load of ‘rotten’ tobacco products owned by Manikandan in his mini truck to a location in Trichy so that they can return it to Bengaluru. When Kumar went there, he found minor boys buying the tobacco products from Manikandan. Kumar alleged that he was forced to chew a bit of tobacco which caused him giddiness following which he lodged complaint with the Ariyamangalam police.

In another incident, the Gandhi market police arrested A

Chandrasekaran

, 40, from Mannachanallur, and

K Subramanian

, 50, from Puthur in Trichy, and booked them under Cotpa for selling banned substance to minors in front of Venkateswara store on Thanjavur road near Gandhi market on Monday.

The police caught them based on the complaint from Mohammed Zakariya, a coolie at the Gandhi market. When Zakariya was crossing Venkateswara store, Chandrasekaran was unloading the packs of tobacco products from a mini truck on the road. As Zakariya asked them to unload them without causing inconvenience to others, he and the store owner Subramani confronted and forced him to consume a tobacco product. As it caused nausea and giddiness, he lodged a complaint with the police.

Zakariya also alleged that Subramanian also sold the tobacco products to minor boys. The police seized 87kg of tobacco products. Both of them were arrested.