Belagavi police bust pan masala racket

Belagavi: The district police have busted an inter-state racket that was manufacturing duplicate pan masala sachets of various companies and selling them in different parts of the country.
Police have taken five people into custody — two are from Telangana and three from Delhi — and found machinery and raw materials worth lakhs of rupees on them. The accused were produced before Chikodi court on Thursday and remanded in judicial custody.
According to police sources, the accused manufactured the fake pan masala in Bengaluru, while the sachets were printed in Delhi. Two weeks ago, the police raided manufacturing units in Bengaluru and Delhi and found the raw materials.
Officers took the assistance of the Delhi police to conduct the raid.
Later, they were produced in a Delhi court. After that, with a transit warrant, they were produced before the Chikodi court on Thursday.
Chikodi deputy SP Basavaraj Yeligar said: “The duplicate pan masala sachets the accused were manufacturing are not just harmful to the public health. It causes crores of rupees of tax loss to the government. It’s a very serious case as some duplicate medicines have been recovered.”
This case needed a higher-level investigation, he said.
The police department had formed three teams involving senior officers to trace the case, after the sales manager of Dhariwal Industries Private Limited, which manufactures the RMD pan masala, filed a complaint in Sadalaga police station on May 17, against Muzammil Noushad after catching him selling duplicate sachets.