Hoarding During Coronavirus: Masks, Fake Sanitisers Worth Rs 7 Lakh Seized in Maharashtra.
In a joint operation by Food and Drug Administration and the local crime branch, as many as 730 bottles of fake hand sanitisers and 18,900 masks were recovered.
New Delhi: In a crackdown against hoarding during the coronavirus outbreak, masks and adulterated hand sanitisers worth Rs 7 lakh were seized from a shop in Maharashtra’s Jalna city, police said on Friday. In a joint operation, officials of the food supply office, Food and Drug Administration and the local crime branch raided Kalpana Emporium in New Jalna on Thursday night, crime branch chief Rajendra Singh Gour said. As many as 730 bottles of fake hand sanitisers and 18,900 masks valued at Rs 7 lakh were recovered, he said. A case has been registered against shop owner Hastimal Bamb for allegedly hoarding these masks and sanitisers, he added.
Hoarding During Coronavirus: Masks, Fake Sanitisers Worth Rs 7 Lakh Seized in Maharashtra.
In a joint operation by Food and Drug Administration and the local crime branch, as many as 730 bottles of fake hand sanitisers and 18,900 masks were recovered.
New Delhi: In a crackdown against hoarding during the coronavirus outbreak, masks and adulterated hand sanitisers worth Rs 7 lakh were seized from a shop in Maharashtra’s Jalna city, police said on Friday.
In a joint operation, officials of the food supply office, Food and Drug Administration and the local crime branch raided Kalpana Emporium in New Jalna on Thursday night, crime branch chief Rajendra Singh Gour said.
As many as 730 bottles of fake hand sanitisers and 18,900 masks valued at Rs 7 lakh were recovered, he said.
A case has been registered against shop owner Hastimal Bamb for allegedly hoarding these masks and sanitisers, he added.
7 smugglers held, 9.3kg gold seized.
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officers have arrested seven people on charges of smuggling and seized around 9.3kg of gold worth over Rs 4 crore.
The gold was smuggled from Dubai and other Middle East countries into Kerala and was being sold in Mangaluru and some districts of North Karnataka with forged foreign marking, said official sources.
Based on credible information, the DRI on March 11 intercepted two people – Syed Mohammed and Ashoka KS at the Mangaluru Central Railway Station – and recovered 5.6 kg in gold bars in crude form from their possession.
“There was specific information about a network of operatives who were bringing smuggled gold in the form of crude bars from Kozhikode to Mangaluru. The gold was remelted and cast into 100gm bars with forged foreign markings,”said the officer.“The contraband gold was being sold at various locations in Karnataka,” he added.
On interrogation of the two, the DRI arrested a third person named Manjunath Shet alias Rupesh from the parking lot of the railway station. “He was supposed to receive the smuggled gold from the passengers,” the officer added. Following his arrest, searches were conducted in three different locations in Mangaluru, Udupi, and Shivamogga.
Custom officials foil gold smuggling.
Custom officials at Surat airport have foiled an attempt to smuggle gold worth Rs 20 lakhs into the country. While screening through the passengers’ baggage, custom officials found that Ganesh Valodra, a Mumbai resident who had arrived on a Sharjah bound Air India flight, had concealed gold foils in the cover of his suitcases. Valodra has been booked for gold smuggling. Incidentally, it was the second case of gold smuggling that came into light at the Surat airport in less than a week.
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Coronavirus: Kerala to use 1.5 lakh litres of seized spirit for producing sanitisers.
KOCHI: Following the huge increase in demand for hand sanitisers and steep hike in price of its main ingredient isopropyl alcohol, the state is looking to make use of lakhs of litres of rectified spirit seized by the Excise Department in various cases.
CB Chandrababu, chairman, Kerala State Drug and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KSDPL), which has approached the government seeking the release of around 1.5 lakh litres of spirit, said: “The seized spirit is ethanol which, as per World Health Organisation standards, can be used to make hand sanitisers.” The public sector unit is now working only on alternate days, after its Mumbai-based supplier increased the price of isopropyl alcohol.
“The supplier has increased its price from Rs 140 per litre to Rs 300. So we requested the government to release 1.5 lakh litres, but it might give us 5 lakh litres,” he said.KSDPL did not have any prior experience of making sanitisers, but it decided to start production after state government demand following the Covid 19 outbreak. “We’ve been making 10,000 units of 500ml hand sanitiser bottles per day,” he said.
CBP Intercepts First Package of Counterfeit COVID-19 Test Kits.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized a package filled with fake COVID-19 test kits late last week—marking the agency’s first interception of counterfeit goods connected to the novel coronavirus outbreak, an official confirmed to Nextgov Thursday.
While conducting an enforcement examination of “a parcel manifested as ‘Purified Water Vials’ with a declared value of $196.81” that’d recently arrived from the United Kingdom, CBP officers assigned to the Los Angeles International Airport International Mail Facility on March 12 apparently realized something was awry.
“A complete examination of the shipment, led to the finding of vials filled with a white liquid and labeled ‘Corona Virus 2019nconv (COVID-19)’ and ‘Virus1 Test Kit,’” officials wrote in the announcement. “The shipment was turned over to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for analysis.”
Though an official from CBP’s public affairs office told Nextgov that the incident was the first COVID-19 related counterfeit finding by the agency so far, they would not confirm if it was the only counterfeit finding the agency intercepted related to the pandemic.
Gohana 50K masks, raw material seized.
A team of the CM flying squad led by DSP Ajit Singh raided a floor tile showroom in Gohana on Wednesday and seized raw material and around 50,000 unhygienic masks being manufactured.
The raid was conducted following receipt of a tip-off that fake masks were being prepared illegally. Before the raid, Gohana Tehsildar Roshan Lal was included in the team as duty magistrate. Around 100 daily-wage workers were found preparing masks in two rooms. After seizure of raw material and masks, officials of various departments were asked to reach the spot. The DSP said the person reportedly involved in preparing masks was asked to reach the spot. He said legality of manufacturing masks would be confirmed after inquiry. — OC
Fake hand sanitiser racket busted in Hyderabad after 1 lakh bottles sold for Rs 1.4 crore.
Police seized 25,000 units of 100 ml sanitisers and raw materials worth Rs 40 lakh. Investigation has revealed that so far the accused have manufactured and marketed 1 lakh bottles worth Rs 1,44,00,000. A fake hand sanitiser manufacturing unit was busted on the outskirts of Hyderabad as police and drug inspectors seized batches of these fake products. Acting on a tip-off, sleuths of the Special Operations Team (SOT) of Rachakonda, along with police officers of Hyderabad and Ayush Drug Inspector from Telangana, raided the duplicate hand sanitiser manufacturing unit and recovered the fake products.
Police seized 25,000 units of 100 ml sanitisers and raw materials worth Rs 40 lakh. Investigation has revealed that so far the accused have manufactured and marketed 1 lakh bottles worth Rs 1,44,00,000.
Over 4 kg smuggled gold seized at Chennai Airport.
Customs officials at Chennai Airport on Wednesday seized 4.6 kg gold worth about Rs 1.90 crore hidden in two aeroplanes.
In a statement issued here, the Commissioner of Customs in the Chennai International Airport said based on information that gold was likely to be smuggled through flights arriving from Abu Dhabi, Etihad Airways flight EY-268 which arrived from Abu Dhabi was subjected to a search on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the customs officers recovered two bundles wrapped with adhesive tape concealed underneath the cushion of one of the seats.
On opening the bundles, the officers recovered two 1 kg gold bars with foreign marking and two gold rectangular plates and four gold cut bars totally weighing 3.99 kg valued at Rs. 1.65 crore.
The customs officers again hit gold in Indigo Airlines flight 6E-054 which arrived from Singapore.
During a search, a cloth pouch was found concealed inside hollow pipe of one of the seats.
On opening the pouch, three gold cut bits, totally weighing 600 grams valued at Rs 25.52 lakh was recovered.
Since there were no claimants to claim the ownership of the recovered gold from both the flights, the same was seized as “unclaimed” under the provisions of Customs Act, 1962, the statement said.
https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/over-4-kg-smuggled-gold-seized-at-chennai-airport/1772161
Lear MoreHoly smokes: Over RM11mil worth of contraband cigarettes seized.
The Johor Customs Department seized a container with RM11.33mil worth of contraband cigarettes from China.
The 40-foot container had landed at the Tanjung Pelepas Port on March 11 around 4pm, said the department’s Gelang Patah branch director Datuk Mohammad Hamiddan Maryani during a press conference on Monday (March 16).
“The contents were declared as oil filters, air filters, rubber hoses, and rubber belts.
“Upon inspection, we found numerous boxes containing a total of 51,500 cartons, or 10,300,00 sticks of U2 brand cigarettes,” he said.
Mohammad Hamiddan said that the amount of contraband totalled up to RM4.12mil with unpaid duty of RM7.21mil.
He added that a 41-year-old local man, who is the shipping agent for the contraband was arrested to assist with the investigation and has been released on a RM25,000 bail.
“The cigarettes are suspected to be sold in Johor, as this brand is particularly popular among Johoreans,” he said adding that this was the fourth case of cigarette smuggling this year.
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