In their attempt to stop the sale of tobacco, the police have recently registered four cases and seized tobacco products worth Rs 13.55 lakh.
The sale of tobacco has been banned since there are chances of people infected with coronavirus spitting in public and infecting others.
A senior officer said: “We are informed that the state government will permit the sale of tobacco products with the condition that those consuming the products should not spit in public places, and anyone found spitting will be fined. But who will watch them? The police or the BBMP officials?”
It would be humanly impossible to watch every tobacco consumer, the officer said, adding that the police would not be able to deploy their staff to watch the consumers.
While the police have been cracking down on traders selling tobacco products since the lockdown, the official said no one can stop people from spitting in public if the government gives permission to sell tobacco from May 4.
“If they spit in front of us, we could book them, but if it does not come to our attention, nothing can be done,” said a senior Central Crime Branch (CCB) official.
Multiple raids, seizures
On Thursday, CCB police inspector C Niranjana Kumara and his team learnt that a man, identified as Ramesh, had come to distribute cigarettes to shops in KR Puram. They detained Ramesh and his SUV. They found 12 cartons of cigarettes with Ramesh, valued at Rs 12 lakh.
Ramesh said he got the cigarettes from TCS and Sons, a distributor in Doddenakundi, and Vijay Agencies in Horamavu. He tried to sell the tobacco products for higher than the MRP prices.
In three cases booked at the City Market police station, the police have seized more than Rs 1.5 lakh chewing tobacco products. On Wednesday, they raided Mahaveer Jain trading on DK Lane in Chickpet and seized paan masala (gutkha) worth Rs 75,000. A case has been registered against the owner Rajendra Kumar.
In another raid on a footpath shop on GP Street in Chickpet, the police on Thursday seized paan masala worth Rs 80,000. Two cases were registered against Shiva Kumar, Shekar, Krishnamurthy, Shivu and Irshad Pasha.