CHENNAI: Three people who were smuggling gutkha, an oral tobacco product that was banned in Tamil Nadu, were arrested by the city police when they were ferrying it on an auto-rickshaw. The police team also seized a whopping 322 kg of the product from them near Taramani on Thursday.

The Taramani police had received a tip-off about the movement of banned oral tobacco products in their jurisdiction after which a special team was formed to apprehend those involved in the trade.

On Thursday, the special team intercepted an auto-rickshaw on 100 Feet Road. When they questioned the occupants of the vehicle, the trio gave evasive replies, which made the officials suspicious.

Following this, the police detained the three of them and checked the vehicle. Searches revealed there were several sacks of oral tobacco products, weighing a little over 322 kg, after which all three occupants of the vehicle were arrested.

The arrested trio was identified as P Meenatchi Sundaram (40), M Rajkumar (31) and K Mathivanan (30). The police also seized the autorickshaw used by the trio to transport the banned tobacco product.

Meenatchi Sundaram already has a gutkha smuggling case against him, police said. All three of them were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.

Further investigations are under way.