Three Arrested in Hyderabad Raid Seizing Vapes and Banned Foreign Cigarettes

Overview

• Police from the Commissioner’s Task Force, Jubilee Hills Zone, and Banjara Hills police raided a Srinagar Colony location and arrested three people after seizing 53 vapes, 10 bottles of flavour liquid and 76 boxes of banned foreign cigarettes valued at about ₹2 lakh.
• The detained were identified as Mohammed Muneer, 26, and Abdul Rahman Meehraj, 25, both described as local businessmen, and Mohammed Eyas, 19, who works at smokers.in.
• Officers said the suspects told investigators they had recently come from Kerala to start the business and were selling the products to local customers.
• Police allege the banned cigarette boxes were procured from Mumbai at about ₹600–₹800 a box and resold in Hyderabad for up to ₹2,500, a gap officials say shows profitable demand that fuels the black market.
• The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act bans manufacture, import, sale, distribution, transport, storage and advertisement of e-cigarettes in India and investigators have opened a probe into the wider supply and distribution links that could lead to prosecution.