KOCHI: The city police have arrested a 38-year-old man with banned tobacco products at Vallarpadam.
The arrested person has been identified as Santhosh Kumar, son of Chandrabali Saroj of Uttar Pradesh. As much as 66.7kg of tobacco products were seized from him. The accused was arrested during a routine vehicle checking by the city police near Vallarpadam Junction in the early hours of Friday.
The accused came on his scooter at around 1am and the police team inspected his vehicle to find the contraband. He used to acquire the contraband from Aluva. A man named Avanees used to smuggle the contraband from West Bengal via train and Kumar used to procure the contraband from him at Aluva.
An investigation is on to find Avanees as well, police said. The accused was arrested by a team led by Taposh Basumatary, station house officer, Mulavukadu. SI Jayaprakashan, ASI Shyamkumar and CPO Aneesh were part of the team which made the arrest. Police said that the accused was booked under the Cotpa Act.
