Man held with duplicate cigarettes worth Rs 11 lakh in Hyderabad’s Begum Bazaar

Kamal Kishore Agarwal procured these from smugglers in Delhi at a cheap rate without a tax invoice, transported to Hyderabad through private buses and stored them in his godown

Hyderabad: The Task Force (Central) team, along with the Shahinayathgunj police, raided a godown and arrested one person for selling duplicate cigarettes of various brands at Begum Bazaar on Friday.

Officials seized a load of duplicate cigarettes with a market value of Rs 11.2 lakh.

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The arrested person has been identified as Kamal Kishore Agarwal (50), a trader from Begum Bazaar and native of Rajasthan.

According to the police, Agarwal, who runs a grocery store, procured the duplicate cigarettes from smugglers in Delhi at a cheap rate without a tax invoice. He transported the material to Hyderabad through private buses and stored them in his godown.

“He sold these cigarettes to pan shops, petty vendors and small grocery stores at a higher price, as there is high demand for these brands in the market, and made easy money,” a police official said.

The arrested person, along with the seized material, was handed over to the Shahinayathgunj police for further action.

Officials said fake cigarettes — sold in similar packaging of genuine brands, packed with low-quality tobacco and sold illegally at high margins — pose severe health threats to users, who are already at a risk of lung cancer due to their habit of smoking.