Police today claimed to have busted a cigarette-theft racket with the arrest of nine persons and recovery of stolen cigarettes worth around Rs 46 lakh.
The racket was unearthed on the night of April 8 when a police team came across a truck standing in a suspicious manner at Uttar Shiv in Thane district and found that the cartons of cigarettes that it was carrying were stolen, an officer said.
"Shil Daighar police found the truck parked in a suspicious manner at Uttar Shiv. During the search, they found that the vehicle was carrying 186 cartons of cigarettes worth Rs 15.50 lakh that were actually meant to be exported to Saudi Arabia," ACP (Crime) N T Kadam of the Crime Branch said.
Four persons, including the truck driver Mohammad Ismail Shah, were arrested. During their interrogation, they revealed the names and involvement of some other accused.
"They told the police that the ITC-manufactured cigarettes were stolen from a container, which was being carried from Ranjangaon MIDC to JNPT for shipment. The driver of the container, who is part of the racket, stopped the vehicle at Chowk Phata in Raigad district, where the accused took out total 550 cartons of cigarettes," police said.
"Without breaking the seal, the accused removed the rivets of the boxes in which the cartons were kept. After taking out the cartons, they once again fixed the rivets as they were before the theft," Kadam said.
Based on the information given by the arrested accused, the police conducted a raid at a godown at Bapgaon Bhiwandi in the district and seized the remaining 364 cartons worth Rs 30.33 lakh. The total worth of the seized cigarettes is worth Rs 45.83 lakh, he said.
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A complaint has been filed in this connection under IPC 407 (criminal breach of trust by carrier).
The other eight accused in the case were identified as Vijay Yadav (35), Alok Agrawal (38), Akhil Ahmed Kalfu Khan (28), Shidhari Yadav (50), Ramashankar Sharma (30), Pravin Kumar Singh (36), Bilal Ahmed Mohammad Jabbar Ahmed (28) and Mohammad Jalaluddin Mohammad Nadam Khan (35), Kadam said.
Further investigation into the case is on.