Gutkha manufacturing gang nabbed in Addanki

Addanki: Darsi DSP K Prakasha Rao announced that they arrested the gang involved in the manufacture of banned gutkha and other tobacco products at Addanki and distributing them in Guntur, Nellore and Prakasam districts. He was interacting with the media here on Thursday.

The DSP said that on August 23, 2019, following the orders of Prakasam SP Siddharth Kaushal, the Darsi DSP, Addanki CI T Ashok Vardhan, Medarametla Sub-Inspector of Police T Balakrishna and other police personnel raided Mounika Tobacco Godowns in Medarametla village of Korisapadu mandal and seized gutkha raw materials and machinery worth Rs 3 crore.

The Addanki Circle Inspector, with the assistance from Medarametla SI and supervision by Darsi DSP started the investigation under the guidance of SP by arresting the godown owner Pokuri Hanumantha Rao.

The special team formed with the Addanki CI, Medarametla SI and others found that the brothers, Balagani Venkata Prasad and Venkata Pandu, natives of Nellore district setup a pan shop to earn their livelihood in the year 2000 in Trunk Road in Nellore. They become friends with Nenavath Umasingh alias Shankar, who used to work in the gutkha manufacturing industry, in 2002.

The three started manufacturing betel nut powder and used to market it by the brand name, Apple. As they are experiencing losses day by day, they decided to manufacture the banned gutkha products and supply them in the state.

They entrusted the purchase of machinery for mixing the materials and packaging to Sambhu Subrahmanyam, resident of Guntur and friend of Shankar. After procuring the machinery, they purchased the gutkha materials from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Hyderabad and started manufacturing gutkha with brand names, Hans, Swagath and Star from March 2016 at the tobacco godown in Medarametla.

They supplied the product to Kavuri Shiva of Nellore who then developed a distribution network with the help of his friends Nelavayi Rajasekhar Reddy, Palaniyandi Rajalingam and Mallupeddi Venkata Sunil from Nellore itself and Subrahmanyam from Guntur.

The special team arrested all these eight people in Ongole on Thursday for involving in the illegal manufacture of banned tobacco products and seized 20 bags of tobacco material and Rs 2.40 lakh from them.

The DSP Prakasa Rao said that the brothers Prasad and Pandu employed Seetharam and Suresh from Rajasthan for manufacturing and packaging the gutkha product while Shankar formulated the material combinations.

He said that they stopped the manufacturing and supply from March 2019, in view of the expected checks during election time. He said that they made a profit of Rs 10 crore in the three years of running the illegal business.

The DSP announced that the SP Siddharth Kaushal has appreciated the special team members for their sincere efforts in arresting the accused and seizure of material.