THANE: The police have seized banned imported cigarettes worth Rs 54.31 lakh and arrested a person for stocking the contraband in Ulhasnagar town of Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, the police raided a general store in the town on Thursday and seized a stock of banned cigarettes, senior inspector Krishna Kokni of the Crime Branch Unit I of the city police said.
The police have arrested Jitendra alias Jhonny Makhija, the owner of the shop and also raided a godown where he stored the banned product, he said.
Apart from the imported cigarettes, the accused also stocked Indian cigarettes, which had no statutory warning labels on them, the official said, adding that the seized stock was manufactured in Korea, Switzerland, Indonesia and London.
An offence under relevant sections of the IPC and COPTA Act have been registered against the arrested accused with the Central police station of Ulhasnagar zone, the official said.