Erode: Man uses minor daughter to sell banned tobacco hidden in biscuit packets, held

ERODE: A 64-year-old man who was using his teenaged daughter to sell banned tobacco products has been arrested. Police said he used to conceal the tobacco products inside expired biscuit packets. He was arrested along with his supplier and four students by Perundurai police on Thursday. 

The incident came to light when police intercepted Chandrasekar who was riding a two-wheeler with the girl on the pillion holding a bag load of biscuits. The man used to ask his 14-year-old daughter to deliver the contraband to shops in and around Perundurai. 

“The accused removed a few biscuits from the packets, filled the space with banned tobacco and sealed it again. The girl who was unaware of this, was asked to distribute them to shops,” said a police officer. Five kg of banned tobacco was seized from him. Based on the information he gave, police raided a grocery shop in the locality and seized around 30 kilograms of contraband.

After further investigation, they raided the house of a supplier, Alagesan (22), and seized 50 kg more. Following this, a godown was raided and another 30 kilograms were seized along with several expired biscuit packets, a weighing machine, money counting machine and Rs 10,000 cash.

The other accused arrested from the godown and grocery shop were identified as Rajarajan (33) and Lakshmanan (22) of Perundurai, Mayandi (43) of Tirunelveli and Navarathan (47), a native of Rajasthan. They were booked under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.

NEET aspirant ends life near gudalur
Coimbatore: A teenaged girl died by suicide allegedly after she failed to secure good marks in the NEET. According to police, the 17-year-old from Bharathi Nagar near Gudalur appeared for NEET in her second attempt this year, but managed a low score. Her parents sent her to stay with her sister in Tiruppur, but she returned home 10 days ago. On December 18, she took the extreme step and was admitted to Gudalur GH and was later shifted to Ooty hospital. She was referred to Mettupalayam GH three days ago where she died on Wednesday.