Palghar: Gutka, banned tobacco products worth Rs 19.5 lakh seized; one held

The police in Maharashtras Palghar district have seized gutka and banned tobacco products worth nearly Rs 195 lakh from a tempo and arrested its driver an official told news agency PTI on FridayThe police recovered the banned tobacco products from a tempo while patrolling within the limits of ModgaonHaladpada on Wednesday Yogesh Jadhav Palghar district PRO API told PTIThe tempo driver was identified as Sushil Sahni 35 A case has been registered in the matter at Kasa police station and cops are trying to find out from where Sahni obtained the banned products and to whom he intended to deliver the stock reported PTILast week a 43year old man from Maharashtras Thane district has been arrested for allegedly posing as a CBI officer and cheating a person of Rs 26 lakh police told PTIThe 51yearold victim from Mira Road area was a partner in a metal refining company in neighbouring Palghar which was engaged in the purchase of scrapped batteries recycling and extracting lead from them and selling the same in the market Kashimira police stations senior police inspector Sandeep Kadam told PTI quoting the FIRThe GST commissioners office had raised a query regarding the purchase of scrapped batteries pointing out certain faults in the transactions in 202122 and issued a notice to the firmThe victim submitted all his transaction documents to the GST commissioner and was awaiting a clean chit as per the FIRAs there was a delay in the matter the victim enquired from his acquaintances who referred him to a man also from Mira Road area here it saidThe man posed as a CBI commissioner and offered to help the victim He allegedly took money from the victim on different occasions between August 2022 and April this year the FIR saidHe also suggested to the victim some investment options and took money while promising good returns it saidThe accused had also displayed a board on his car claiming to be a CBI officer it statedThe victim however neither got a clean chit in the GST matter nor the promised returns on investmentsThe accused later gave evasive replies that he had invested the money in gutka business which ran into losses the police saidWhen the victim asked the accused to return the money he blocked his number the official told PTIThe victim filed a police complaint on Sunday and the accused was arrested on Monday and booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 cheating 406 criminal breach of trust and 170 personating a public servant the official told PTIThe accused was subsequently produced before a local court which remanded him in police custody till September 14 the official told PTIThe police are now trying to find out if the accused had cheated more persons in a similar manner the official told PTIWith inputs from PTI