Pune: Pimpri Chinchwad police recovered gutka and flavoured tobacco worth Rs56 lakh from a truck on the Pune-Mumbai highway on Sunday. The gutka and tobacco sacks were being transported to Mumbai after being hidden under vermicompost. A case was registered with Shirgaon police.Senior police inspector Devendra Chavan of Shirgaon police said his team noticed a truck near the Urse toll plaza during patrolling. “We found the driver’s movements suspicious. We stopped the truck and asked about its contents. He claimed that he was transporting vermicompost to Mumbai,” Chavan said.He said that the team checked the truck and found gutka and flavoured tobacco hidden under the boxes of vermicompost. “We seized gutka worth Rs42.44 lakh, flavoured tobacco worth Rs14.40 lakh, vermicompost worth Rs2.6 lakh and the truck worth Rs20 lakh. We have arrested the truck driver, who is from Bengaluru in Karnataka. We have sent teams to trace the other accused,” he said.
