Man caught running tobacco adulteration racket

Rajkot: Police here dismantled a tobacco adulteration operation here and arrested a 50-year-old man for allegedly adulterating and selling spurious tobacco products under the ‘Baghban 138' brand. The raid, conducted on the evening of April 10, 2026, led to the seizure of spurious tobacco products, packaging machinery and other items worth Rs 84,000.The accused, Jayesh Shingala, was running the illicit business from a rented house in a closed lane of Shree Park Society on Old Morbi Road. According to the FIR filed at the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) police station, Shingala was caught red-handed operating the packaging facility. Investigators said Shingala would buy genuine 40g paper pouches of ‘Baghban 138' tobacco, open them using a specialised heating machine and transfer the contents into a tub. He would then adulterate the tobacco by mixing it with inferior, low-quality loose tobacco. After adulteration, Shingala would repack the mixture into the paper pouches and empty 50g ‘Baghban 138' tins. An automatic electric machine was used to seal the counterfeit tins, which were then passed off as genuine brand-name products. Shingala confessed to running the adulteration and repackaging operation and selling the spurious goods, police said. The action followed a complaint by Hiren Patel, a representative of an Ahmedabad-based intellectual property rights services company. Patel's firm is authorised by the legitimate manufacturer and copyright holder of the ‘Baghban 138' brand to investigate and take legal action against trademark and copyright infringements. Acting on a tip-off received a few days earlier, Patel approached the Rajkot city DCB, following which a coordinated raid was carried out. "Upon entering the premises, the team discovered Shingala operating the packaging equipment, surrounded by loose tobacco, empty boxes and weighing scales. Shingala failed to produce a licence or authorisation from the brand owners to package or sell the products," a police officer said. Shingala has been charged under Sections 63, 64 and 65 of the Copyright Act, along with Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
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