VIJAYAWADA:Officials of the Vigilance and Enforcement department raided the godown of Pragati Road Carrier at Gollapudi here and seized 497 bags of ‘gutka’, a banned tobacco product, whose market value is about `3 crore.
Acting on a tip-off that Vijayawada was being used as a hub for transporting ‘gutka’ to several parts of the state, the officials raided the godown.
The officials learnt that two agents — Sekhar of Hyderabad and Bheema of Visakhapatnam — were sending ‘gutka’ received from New Delhi to other parts of the state. The ‘gutka’ bags arrived in Vijayawada recently in two large containers.
The vigilance officials arrested manager of Pragati Road Carrier Venugopal and two drivers. The raids were supervised by regional vigilance and enforcement officer Y T Naidu.