Traders provide secret codes to customers as police tighten grip on gutkha sale in Coimbatore district

Police in Coimbatore district have intensified measures to curb circulation of banned tobacco products. Traders devised secret codes & hand gestures to sell contraband. 570 cases registered, 5,800 kg seized & fines imposed. School students gave tip offs & attended awareness programmes.

With the police intensifying measures to curb the circulation of banned tobacco products, a few traders in Coimbatore district were found selling these contraband exclusively to buyers who show certain specific “codes”.

Recently, the Coimbatore District (Rural) Police stumbled upon school students, who were found using English alphabets written on their hands as code to get gutkha from a shop at Anamalai near Pollachi.

During investigation, it was found out that students had been buying gutkha from two traders who sold the contraband only to loyal customers, following the crackdown by the police. As informants or policemen in plain clothes could pose as customers, the traders devised English alphabets as secret codes.

“The alphabetic code was being changed everyday and circulated among a bunch of regular customers. These regular customers circulated the codes among known persons. If the code for a day was “B”, the trader sold gutkha to customers who had the letter “B” written on their hands. When people who did not have these codes asked for gutkha, he would say such products were not being sold in his shop,” said Coimbatore District Superintendent of Police V. Badrinarayanan, whose team busted the new modus operandi recently.

As an additional level of security, traders also asked customers to show certain hand gestures while asking for gutkha. Two shops were sealed in coordination with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Interestingly, the police received a lot of intelligence about the traders who sell banned tobacco products from school students who have attended awareness programmes conducted by the district police under the special programme ‘Project Pallikoodam”. Even a few girl students gave tip offs to the police after they wanted their boyfriends to quit using gutkha.

According to Mr. Badrinarayanan, the district police registered a total of 570 cases against persons who sold banned tobacco products under the provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act this year. A total of 5,800 kg of the contraband were seized from traders.