CHENNAI: Kancheepuram district police on Sunday arrested a 50-year-old grocer for using his van to stock and sell banned gutkha products.

The arrested man was identified as Veeraraghavan who runs a grocery store near a temple in Govindavadi.

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.

He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.