Police have seized betel nuts worth `Rs. 45 lakh on Nagpur-Jabalpur highway. The total amount of seized items is around Rs. 45 lakh. Truck driver and cleaner were also arrested by the cops.
Sources said, the truck was going to Karnataka from Nagpur. Investigations revealed that the betel nuts from Nagpur are in huge demand in other states in particular Karnataka for the manufacture of gutkha.
Police said, truck carrying 29 tonnes of spurious betel nuts left the godown of a transport company at Manjunath Road on Sunday night. The betel nuts were loaded at Guru Traders in Mahalgaon Kapsi.
Deputy commissioner Nitesh Bharne received a tip off following which he formed a team. Surveillance was then increased on Jabalpur-Nagpur highway. In the meantime, cops intercepted a truck and during examination recovered betel nuts from it.
Driver Sharanappa Urayya Koli, 26 and cleaner Siddhu Revappa Koli, 21, both residents of Karnataka were arrested.
It is pertinent to note here that smuggling of betel nuts from Nagpur to other states is on rinse after the imposition of ban on sale and manufacture of gutkha by the State government.
