The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a seizure of `1.37 lakh worth of gutka from a certain Suresh Thakkar staying in an upmarket residential area in Borivali (west). The FDA made the seizure in a raid carried out on Monday.
Thakkar was found to be peddling gutka from his posh locality since last year when gutka was banned, said an FDA official. Thakkar has been remanded to police custody and FDA has registered a first information report (FIR) with the Borivali police.
“It usually happens that you find people selling banned products in run down localities. But, this time it was taking place in a rather posh locality, in a residential society. The accused had stored scented gutka, scented supari, and scented tobacco in his house itself. We had received a tip, based on which we conducted the raid and nabbed the accused,” said S.C. Chowgle, assistant commissioner, food, FDA.
Though Thakkar has been handed to the police, the FDA is still clueless from where the banned products are coming into the city. “We are yet to ascertain as to how gutka and other products are entering the city. Thakkar has not yet revealed anything. We are hoping the police will be able to get some information out of him,” said Mr Chowgle.
In a five-page notification issued on July 18 during the Assembly session, Mahesh Zhagade, the state FDA commissioner, ordered a blanket ban on the manufacture, storage, distribution or sale of tobacco and areca nut used for the preparation of gutka and paan masala across the state. The ban excludes untreated tobacco (tobacco with curing) and untreated areca nuts, allowing for the manufacture, storage, distribution, and sale of these.
In another operation, the FDA conducted a check on five toll nakas for milk tankers. The agency checked 113 tankers and collected 218 samples for tests. After the tests, the FDA found that 200 litres of milk contained fat below the permissible limits.