Police said that clients and small-time traders would approach Veeraraghavan at his shop and he would direct them to his van where he had stacked the gutkha packets.

Using this strategy, he was able to conduct the sale of the banned gutkha products for the last two years without anyone suspecting it.

Police investigations revealed that he procured the oral tobacco products from suppliers in Andhra Pradesh and transported them into Kancheepuram under the pretext of transporting goods.

The Prohibition and Enforcement Wing (PEW) raided Veeraraghavan’s grocery store based on a tip-off. While they could not find anything at the shop, a search inside his van yielded over 900 packets of Gutkha.