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Mumbai Police have apprehended the owner of the city’s famous Muchhad Paanwala shop for allegedly selling e-cigarettes, an official said on Wednesday.
The Centre in late 2019 enacted a new law to ban electronic cigarettes, making the production, import, export, transport, sale or advertisements of such “alternative” smoking devices a cognizable offence attracting jail term up to three years along with a fine of up to Rs five lakh.
Based on a specific information, teams of the Mumbai crime branch’s Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) conducted an operation on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday against paan shops selling e-cigarettes near schools, colleges and hospitals in the city, the official said.
A total of 947 e-cigarettes worth more than Rs 13.65 lakh were seized, he said.
The ANC has registered four cases of selling e-cigarettes, including two in south Mumbai and one each in central Mumbai and western suburbs, he said.
Among the cases in south Mumbai, one was against the owner of the Muchhad Paanwala shop in Khetwadi area and he was handed over to V P Road police for further action, the official said.
The city police have also registered a case a hookah parlour, and another case of drugs seizure in which a 40-year-old Nigerian national has been arrested with cocaine and mephedrone worth more than Rs 15 lakh, he said.
A total of 16 people are accused in the six cases. Ten of them have been apprehended so far and six are wanted, the official said.
The Narcotics Control Bureau had in 2021 arrested a co-owner of the Mucchad Paanwala shop, which has been famous as it is frequented by some celebrities, in connection with a drugs case.
