THOOTHUKUDI: A police team from the district have arrested the kingpin of a gutka peddling racket from Binnypet in Bengaluru city, who was disguised as a vegetable vendor, after tracking such cases for the last three months. The operation began after a police team nabbed four persons--Wasim Basha, Selva, Kalimuthu and Arulraj Jesubalan-- for smuggling gutka, at Murappanadu police limit on June 25. An analysis into their call details revealed the source of the supply chain was from Bengaluru.
Thoothukudi SP L Balaji Saravanan formed a special team headed by Assistant Superintendent of Police G Chandeesh, Sub Inspectors Anthonyraj, Sankar and Sunder Raj, along with constable Meenatchi Sundaram to arrest the kingpin.
The special police team found the kingpin, Samuel Jeyakumar alias Sam (50) to be behind gutka supply to southern districts in Tamil Nadu. The team, camping at Bengaluru since September 24, arrested Sam after he switched on his mobile phone. Karnataka police assisted with the operation.
Upon grilling, Sam said he managed to sell the contraband products through shell companies such as Sam enterprises, Land star and Selvi enterprises. "Sam was supplying gutka and other banned tobacco products in regular intervals of 15 days through his agents," said a police official.
ASP Chandeesh told TNIE that the police have frozen 10 bank accounts of Sam which had an amount to the tune of `16 lakh. "A detailed report regarding the misuse of GST and banking accounts have been sent to the notice of the Union government and income tax department for necessary legal actions against the accused," he added.
A senior police officer privy to the investigation told TNIE that Sam had been into gutka smuggling since 2016, as per the transaction records. "Efforts are underway to freeze another 25 bank accounts functioning in his name. During Covid-19 pandemic, Sam supplied gutka in large quantities. He annually paid Rs 60 lakh to Rs 70 lakh GST to the Union government every July", the official added. Sam, a native of Tirunelveli, was previously infamous for credit card fraud cases and got arrested in 2011 when he cloned a credit card belonging to a multi-millionaire.