PRESS MEET

BUSTED FOREIGN CIGARETTES ILLEGALLY IMPORTS AND SALES RACKET – HELD (05) ACCUSED PERSONs GANG

Seized 503 carton box of various brands of foreign Cigarettes all worth about Rs.1,03,00,000/- (One Crore three Lakh rupees)

On credible information the sleuths of Commissioner’s Task Force, North Zone team intercepted one Goods Auto trolley Reg.No.AP13X-1414, opposite Rishab Agency, Siddiamber Bazar , Shahinayathgunj PS limits and found huge quantity of Foreign Cigarettes and on lead proceeded to Sarna Transports Pvt Ltd, , apprehended (05) accused persons gang namely 1)Vipul Ranka , 2)Jagadish Kumar, 3)Doongarchand Shrishrimal , 4)Pavan Kumar Perthani & 5)M.A Haneef who are illegally imports the Foreign cigarettes from Delhi to Sarna transport without any valid invoice, delivery Challan, GST invoice and selling to pan shop vendors, Kiran shops, petty vendors in around and gain illegal easy profits.

➢ Details of accused persons :- 1. Vipul Ranka S/o. Veerchand Ranka, age. 42 yrs, Occ. Business (D. Rajesh Kumar& Co, shop Old Feelkhana) R/o. Begum Bazar, Hyderabad, N/o. Rakhi (village), Siwana (Tehsil) Barmer (Dist), Rajasthan State (Illegally imports & selling of Foreign Cigarette) • (Previous the accused arrested in Cr.No.33/2019, U/s. 420 IPC & Sec. 20(2) COTPA Act of Begum Bazar PS)

2. Jagadish Kumar S./o. Gobar Ram , age. 19 yrs, occ. Business R/o. Chaknawadi, Begum Bazar, Hyderabad, N/o. Tutharo Ka Mohalla, Karmawas (village), Siwana ( Tehsil), Barmer Dist, Jodhpur Division, Rajasthan State , (Associate)

3. Doongarchand Shrishrimal S/o. Roopchand, age. 65 yrs, Occ. Agarbatthi sales business (Rishabha Agency, Siddiamber Bazar) R/o. Afzalgunaj Hyderabad (Associate)

4. Pavan Kumar Perthani S/o.late Govindlal, age. 42 yrs, Occ. Employee in SARNA Transport, Goshamahal R/o., Hyderabad (Incharge of Sarna Transport Pvt Ltd, )

5. M.A Haneef S/o. M.A. Majeed, age. 40 yrs, occ. Employee in SARNA Transport R/o. , Hyderabad, (Delivery agent in SARNA Transport service)

Absconding Accused:-

Ravinder sing Sarna S/o. Mangal Sing Sarna, age. 58 yrs, Occ. Transport business styled as SARNA Transport situated at Goshamahal R/o. Road no.12, , (Owner of SARNA Transport, Goshamahal) ABSCONDING

➢ Seized material :- Market value about 1,03,00,000/- Sl Name of Cigarette Total Containing Total Market No. Brand Caron Total Value Rs. boxes cigarette packets 1. Paris Gold 26 31200 16,08,500/- 2. P10 36 85000 24,65,000/- 3. Win 14 7000 1,40,000/- 4. Paris 394 197000 39,40,000/- 5. ESSE 02 1000 20,000/- 6. Gold Stag 08 12000 6,00,000/- 7. Good Fighter 02 2400 1,32,000/- 8. Flame 08 9600 5,28,000/- 9. Gudang Garam 04 4800 2,64,000/- 10. Gold Queen 04 2000 4,00,000/- 11. Ruili River 03 1500 82,500/- 12. Gold Fighter 02 2400 1,20,000/- Grand Total 503 3,55,900 1,03,00,000/-

• The accused Vipul Ranka is native of Rajasthan State and migrated to Hyderabad.He is running business on the name of D. Rajesh Kumar & Co, situated at Begum used to sell Tailoring material & Agarbatti Material. Illegally procuring and selling foreign cigarettes in around Hyderabad.

• The Jagadish Kumar is native of Rajasthan State and settled in Hyderabad. He is working as sales man in whole sale market, Begum Bazar He came into contact with Vipul Ranka and used to marketing and selling of Foreign Cigarettes to Pan shop vendors, Kirana shop vendors, local agents on commission basis and gain illegal easy profits.

• The accused Doongar Chand Sri Sri is native of Rajasthan State and settled in Hyderabad . He is running Agarbatthi Sales business as styled and name as Rishab Agency at Siddiamber Bazar. While running the business he came into contact with Vipul Ranka and used to purchase the banned Foreign Cigarettes and selling to local agents in the limits of Hyderabad and gain easy profits.

• The accused Pavan Kumar Perthani is residing in the limits of Basheerbagh, Hyd. He is incharge of Sarna Transport Pvt Ltd, Goshamahal.

• The accused M.A Haneef is residing in the limits of Asif Nagar, Hyderabad. He is Assistant manager of Sarna Transports and delivery the foreign Cigarettes to local agents.

➢ Facts of the case : The accused Vipul Ranka is running business on the name of D. Rajesh Kumar & Co, situated at Begum bazaar and used to selling Tailoring material & Agarbatti Material. Due to insufficient income to gain easy money he entered into foreign cigarettes business.

The accused Vipul Ranka came into contact with owner of Sarna Transports purchasing huge quantity of Foreign Cigarettes from him and selling at his D.Rajesh Kumar & Co, situated at Begum bazaar to known needy customers on high price and gain illegal easy profits. Under the guise of Sarna Transports the accused persons namely Pavan Kumar & M.A Haneef are kept the Foreign Cigarettes in their godown and distributing the material under the instructions of Sarna Transport owner Ravinder sing Sarna.

In this process the accused Vipul Ranka came into contact with local distributors namely namely 1)Jagadish Kumar & 2) Doongar Chand Sri Sri they illegally procuring the Foreign Cigarettes from Sarna Transports and supplying to Pan shop vendors, petty Kirana Shop vendors, local Marketing agents in around Hyderabad and gain huge profit on the foreign cigarettes.

According to sources, these Foreign cigarettes are being illegally smuggled from countries like China, Malaysia, Switzerland & South Korea to evade taxes and are being sold in Delhi, Hyderabad and other states at cheaper rates with heavy margin to the sellers. As compared to Indian brands and consumers also preferred to buy such cigarettes due to its international quality and brands.

The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) has made it mandatory to have graphic health warning on the 85 per cent space of the cigarette packet and the Union government levies heavy taxes on the tobacco products to discourage their sale. But these foreign cigarettes have no health warning on it.

Two days back the owner of Sarna Transports purchased huge quantity of Foreign Cigarettes from Delhi, through road transports kept in the Sarna Transport godowns at Goshamahal in order to deliver to the customers namely 1)Vipul Ranka, 2)Jagadish Kumar, 3)Doongar Chand Sri Sri and others.

Arrest :-

Today while the accused persons are transporting huge quantity of Foreign Cigarettes from Sarna transports to their shops apprehended above (05) accused persons.

Seized various brands of Foreign Cigarettes from their instance. The seized material market value about Rs. 1,03,00,000/- (One Crore Three lakh rupees) The accused persons along with above seized material are being handed over to SHO, Shahinayathgunj PS for further investigation.

The arrest was made under the supervision of Sri.P.Radhakishan Rao, Dy.Commissioner of Police, Commissioner’s Task Force, Hyderabad by Sri K.Nageswar Rao, Inspector of Police, Commissioner’s Task Force, North Zone, and SIs Sri. G.Rajashekar Reddy, K.Srikanth, and North Zone Task Force Team, Hyderabad.

COMMISSIONER OF POLICE HYDERABAD.