3 rice smugglers held under Goondas Act

Coimbatore: Three persons involved in repeated incidents of rice smuggling have been detained under the Goondas Act by the city police. The three - Anwar alias Anwar Basha (39), Vel Kani (38), both from Nallampalayam and Manikandan (30) from Saibaba Colony - were caught red handed when they were trying to smuggled huge loads of ration rice to neighbouring Kerala.

Acting on a tip off, the Civil Supplies - Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths were involved in checks in all roads bound to Kerala. During a vehicle check on the Coimbatore-Palakkad road by a team led by Inspector T.H. Ganesh on July 3, the police stopped two trucks that were heading to Kerala.

A thorough check revealed that the smugglers had hid PDS rice meant for distribution in ration shops below sacks of pulses. There were around ten tonnes of rice in two trucks. Investigations revealed that the three arrested persons were habitual offenders caught several times for smuggling rice.

Of them, Anwar was detained twice under the Goondas Act, while there are cases of rice smuggling against two others also. The three persons were arrested under Essential Commodities Act and remanded to custody. City Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan on Monday ordered detention of the three men under the Goondas Act.