Crime branch recover stolen cigarettes worth Rs 46 lakhs

THANE: The property cell of crime branch has busted a racket involved in thefts of cigarettes, meant for exporting to the gulf countries, and recovered the stolen stock of total value of Rs 45.83 lakhs from the nine arrested accused.
The accused ran out of luck as no one was purchasing the stolen stock as the packets had clearly written on them ‘For sale in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries’. The police said that the entire chain was working in tandem with all the other gang members.

Assistant commissioner, NT Kadam informed TOI that last week, Shil Daighar had seized the truck which was standing in a suspicious manner in Uttar Shiv region near Daighar. “After carrying out the search, it was found that the stock contained pilfered cigarettes meant for export to Saudi Arabia worth Rs 15.50 lakhs a total of 186 cartons,” informed senior inspector Yashwant Chavan. Subsequntly, four persons who were with the truck namely Akhil Khan , Alok Agrawal, Shivdhari Yadav and Mohammad Ismail Saha were taken into custody and the police were told that they had jointly indulged in the theft of the consgingment and had brought the truck there for sale to the needy customers, said assistant inspector PS Sanap.

Upon carrying out the further probe, it was revealed that they had with the help of one Shafique, Munna and the driver of a container Joginder Singh, pilfered the stock from the container without breaking the seal on it. They just tampered the rivet and opened the container and removed the stock out and later fixed the rivet intact as it was. They had thus stolen a total of 550 cartons of cigarrettee which is worth Rs 45 lakh. During the probe, they spilled the beans and the accused informed the container was despatched from Ranjangaon MIDC of the ITC company and headed towards JNPT Port for shipment. “Midway the alleged accused, with the help of driver Vijay Yadav, stopped it at the Chowk Phata in the night midway without delivering it to the ship yard and pilfered the consignment in the said manner. The management of Logistics Integrated India the transporters had filed a complaint under sections 407 rw 34 of the IPC with the local police station against the accused,” Sanap informed TOI.

The police also in the course of their probe seized the entire stock of remaining cigarette cartons from a godown at Bapgaon Bhiwandi in the district. The recovered cigarettes include a total of 364 cartons of Wills Navy Cut brand valued at Rs 30.33 lakhs. Thus the police totally seized a stock of 550 cartons of stolen goods valued at Rs. 45.83 lakhs.