GURUGRAM: Raids were conducted in the district to curb the menace of imported cigarettes violating Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution Act (COTPA). The raids were conducted on Friday, and it was part of a state wide drive on the directions of Dr Saket Kumar, Commissioner, Food and Drugs Administration Haryana. In Gurugram, two people were arrested for selling imported cigarettes without pictorial warnings.The district administration had received a complaint that a few shops were selling Hukka flavours i.e. tobacco molasses containing nicotine. Following this, teams headed by Gurugram's Drugs Control Officer Amandeep Chauhan and Food Safety Officer KK Sharma raided the tobacco selling premises on Friday. The teams also checked wholesellers in Sadar Bazar.Out of these, two outlets of the same franchise Green Leaf Paan Shop near 32nd Milestone and at Good Earth City Centre Mall in sector 50 were found to be selling the imported cigarettes, Tobacco Molasses, Pipe Tobacco and other objectionable products. As per the Punjab Poison Possession and Sales Rules, a licence is required to sell tobacco molasses.At Good Earth City Centre, the establishment's incharge Tilak Raj could not produce a licence when the teams asked for it. Nor could he produce a rent agreement or the details of the owner. At 32nd Milestone, outlet incharge Bindeshwar revealed that shop is owned by a man named Pawan Jain . Here too, a rent agreement was not produced.Sources reveal, that a man named Pawan Jain who owns another Green Leaf Paan Shop in Kingdom of Dreams, too was booked sometime ago for selling illegal electric cigarettes.From the 32nd milestone outlet, around 138 cartons of cigarettes were recovered worth Rs 27, 250. From Good Earth City Centre, the officials recovered 40 packets of cigarettes, 119 packets of tobacco molasses and 12 packets of pipe tobacco, all worth around Rs 14,500.The teams recovered four samples under the provision of Drugs & Cosmetics Act 1940 for further investigations."It is mandatory to carry prescribed pictorial warnings including a skull or cancer along with texts that 'smoking kills' and 'tobacco causes mouth cancer' on a cigarette packet. The warnings should be in both, hindi and English. However, the shops were selling imported cigarettes here which did not carry any warning," said Amandeep Chauhan, drug control officer, Gurugram.The officials reported the matter to the district police, and the owners of both establishments were arrested by district police under the COTPA Act and Punjab Poison Possession and Sale Rules.Cops have registered an FIR at Sadar police station against the two incharges. Cops are investigating who is importing these objectionable products and details of the owner.

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