Nagpur: The Special Squad of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-III) Gajanan Rajmane on Wednesday raided two paan kiosks shops — Golu Paan Palace & Juice and Tulsi Paan & Juice — in Kotwali area and caught four persons, including two shopkeepers, red-handed for illegally running hookah parlours. The squad seized 17 hookah pots, pipes,188 boxes of flavoured tobacco and other material from the two shops.

The accused have been identified as Mohammad Mustakim Abdul Khalil (26), a resident of Plot No 227, Hasanbag, near Qadri High School, Nandanvan, Shahnawaz Amnwar Sheikh (40), a resident of Milan Nagar, Kharbi, Chetan Govindrao Nikhare (35), a resident of Plot No 31, Vrindavan Nagar, Hasanbag and Sachin Sukhdeoji Bawne (26), a resident of Nandanvan.

Mohammad Mustakim, who is the owner of Golu Paan Palace, was allegedly serving hookahs to young boys and girls in a small room inside his shop. Acting on a tip off, the squad raided both the shops and saw some children enjoying hookah. On seeing the police, the teenagers ran away. Cops arrested the accused quartet and seized hookah pots, packets of flavoured tobacco from both the shops.

After the raids, cops registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products(Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act against the accused persons at Kotwali Police Station. The raids were conducted by API Deepak Wankhede, PSI Jitesh Arvelli, and others.